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Profitable broiler production demands dietary nutrients including energy, protein, mineral, vitamins and additives as per the body requirement to meet high growth of the birds. Though energy and protein are the principal nutrients required for growth of birds but the essential role of minerals in poultry production cannot be ignored. Minerals have multifaceted role in the body. They are the components of bones and other soft tissues and play significant role in acid base balance, osmotic pressure regulation and membrane permeability. Trace minerals have major role in functioning of various enzymatic, metabolic and biochemical reaction for effective utilization of nutrients. They are constituents of many proteins involved in metabolism of nutrients, immune defense systems and hormone secretion pathways. Deficiency diseases, metabolic disorders, poor growth rate, low production, low hatchability and low feed efficiency are normally observed on deficiency or imbalance supply of minerals to livestock and poultry.

Along with other trace minerals, selenium is supplemented in broiler ration as an essential trace mineral required for normal growth and production of broiler birds. It was discovered in 1817 by J.J. Berzelius.

Introduction

Climate change is one of the biggest environmental threats to food production, water availability, forest biodiversity and livelihoods. Warming of climate system of the earth is a unanimously accepted reality and probably one of the most prominent challenges for scientists, development workers, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders regarding development and sustainability in international and national arena during past several years. Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPPC) has described climate change as any anthropogenic or naturally occurring alteration in the climate over time. It is widely believed that developing countries such as India will be impacted more severely than developed countries. Climate change is emerging as a big threat to sustainable development of agriculture including animal husbandry and to the livelihood of people. Extreme events such as cold waves, heat waves, ?oods and high intensity single day rainfall events are on increasing trend during the last decade (Dikshit and Birthal, 2010). It is probable that by 2030 the impacts of climate change will be noticeable, although not dramatic and will be largely manifested through changes in pasture growth and quality, and greater inter-annual variability in pasture production. Livestock contribute to climate change by emitting methane through enteric fermentation. But they are also affected by climate change it directly and indirectly, hence affecting their economic and social contributions. Various studies suggest that the changes in pasture growth, composition and production will be dependent on the actual combination of CO₂, temperature and rainfall conditions. Livestock productions under both intensive and extensive systems are subjected to so many stresses, where they undergo different types of physiological adjustments to cope up with stressful conditions. Productions are drastically reduced during stress and require managemental interventions both in terms of optimum nutrition and health care (Soren, 2013).

Introduction

Livestock plays an important role in the sustainable livelihood of poor people of rain-fed agro-ecosystem, because of inherent risk involved in the crop farming due to uncertainty of rainfall and occurrence of recurrent droughts. They provide income and increased economic stability, and often the most important “cash crops” in small-scale mixed farming systems. Livestock sector in India is highly livelihood intensive and most rural households own livestock of one species or the other and earn supplementary incomes from them. Livestock holding is less iniquitous than land holding and income from livestock is more equitably distributed. The sector contributes 25.6 per cent of the value of output at current prices of total value of output in agriculture, fishing & forestry sector and in GDP, it was 4.11% in 2012-13 (19^th livestock census, 2012) therefore, development of the livestock sector is the critical pathway to rural prosperity

As per the 19^th livestock census, the total livestock population consisting of Cattle, Buffalo, Sheep, Goat, Pig, Horses & Ponies, Mules, Donkeys, Camels, Mithun and Yak in the country is 512.05 million numbers in 2012. The total Bovine population (Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun and Yak) is 299.9 million numbers in 2012 which shows a decline of 1.57% over previous census. In percentage basis distribution of livestock were: 37.28% were cattle, 21.23% buffaloes, 12.71% sheep, 26.40% goats and 2.01% pigs. The corresponding figures as per the 18th Livestock Census were 37.58%, 19.89%, 13.50%, 26.53% and 2.10%. The number of milch animals (in-milk and dry) in cows and buffaloes has increased from 111.09 million to 118.59 million, an increase of 6.75%. The number of animals in milk in cows and buffaloes has increased from 77.04 million to 80.52 million showing a growth of 4.51%. The Female Cattle (Cows) Population has increased by 6.52% over the previous census (2007) and the total number of female cattle in 2012 is 122.9 million numbers. The Female Buffalo population has increased by 7.99% over the previous census and the total number of female buffalo is 92.5 million numbers in 2012. The buffalo population has increased from 105.3 million to 108.7 million showing a growth of 3.19%. The total sheep in the country is 65.06 million numbers in 2012, declined by about 9.07% over census 2007. The Goat population has declined by 3.82% over the previous census and the total Goat in the country is 135.17 million numbers in 2012. The total poultry population in the country has increased by 12.39% over the previous census and the total poultry in the country is 729.2 million numbers in 2012. The total number of animals in milk in the country is 116.77 Million numbers.

Introduction

Stress represents the reaction of body to stimuli that disturb normal physiological equilibrium or homeostasis, often with detrimental effects (Khansari et al., 1990). Domestic animals undergo various kinds of stress such as physical, nutritional, chemical, psychological and thermal stress (Marai et al., 2007; Nardone et al., 2010). Figure 1 summarises the different types of stressors and their effects on animals.

Introduction

The animal husbandry and agriculture are the major resource of income for the farmers and directly affects the economic conditions of farmers. Livestock sector plays a vital role for livelihood food security in India. Buffalo plays an important role in dairy industry and contribute 49 per cent of total milk production in India (BAHS, 2017). Murrah is one of the best buffalo breeds in the world and also widely used for up-gradation of non-descript buffaloes in India. Murrah buffalo have poor thermoregulation mechanism compared to other domestic ruminants in tropical countries and are more prone to heat stress due to very less sweat glands, jet black colour and thin hairs on body surface (Das et al., 1999; Khongdee et al., 2013) which reduce the ability of cutaneous evaporation and largely responsible for its low productivity and consequently reducing the reproductive efficiency (Gudev et al., 2007). India continues to be the largest milk producer in the world since 1997. Milk production has increased from 165.4 million tonnes (2016-17) to 176.4 million tonnes (2017-18) (DAHD, GOI). The demand for milk is increasing at a very fast pace due to exponential population growth and the gap in the production and supply is increasing. Out of 300 million bovines, only 88 million are in milk leaving large unproductive animals including 84 million males (19th Livestock census, 2012). If the gap of production and supply is to be bridged, the large number of constraints that affect reproductive efficiency and productivity of dairy animals must be addressed effectively. One important factor that can contribute to the productivity of animals is qualitative production and quantitative adequacy of semen doses for A.I.

Introduction

Climate change has been, and continues to be one of the important causes of low productivity from animal agriculture in tropical countries like India through crop failures, fodder scarcity and increased incidence of endemic animal diseases. It impacts animal agriculture and cause immediate danger for human societies as livelihoods and food production are being adversely affected. Farm ruminant animals contribute to food supply by converting low-value materials, inedible or unpalatable for human, into milk, meat, and eggs and directly contribute to nutritional security. Besides contributing over one-fourth to the agricultural GDP, it provides employment to 18 million people in principal or subsidiary status in India. Nearly two-thirds of farm households are associated with farm animal rearing and 80% of them are small landholders (≤2 ha). As a result of various socio-economic and market driven factors, during the last one decade, large scale transformation took place in both extensive and intensive animal agriculture with regards to type and breed of the animal. A lot of high yielding, low disease resistant and more vulnerable crossbreed animal population have been increased in present animal production systems inorder to meet the market demands. Climate changes could impact severely the economic viability and production of these intensive animal production systems through increased incidence of drought/?oods/cyclones/hailstorms etc. Drought and high ambient temperatures in particular, affects production of milk, meat and egg, reproduction, health of animals and condition of pastures. Changes in pasture and crop biomass availability and quality affect animal production through changes in daily or seasonal feed supplies. Heavy rains and associated ?oods would washout the fodder resources and animals. Recent incidences of severe hail storms are causing brutal injuries to the grazing animals. To mitigate the adverse affects of extreme weather events and cope with changing climate, much precised resilient technologies suitable to local conditions and resources are needed. Hence, one should be critical in recommending smart animal-agriculture technologies in view of much diversified and heterogeneous group of farmers and the resources accessible to them. This will help in sustainable productivity from animal-agriculture and profitability to the farmers even in the era of climate change.

Introduction

Animals have delicate balance of heat production and heat loss, which is maintained by thermoregulatory mechanisms in response to environmental temperature and humidity combinations. When the heat loss is overrun by heat gain, heat stress occurs. During heat stress, increase in the core body temperature due to failure of homeostatic mechanism reduces productivity of the animals below their original genetic potential in growth, milk production, milk constituents and reproduction (Ravagnolo and Misztal, 2002). Impending climate change scenario is a unanimously accepted reality. Increase in the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄and NO₂) cause radiation leading to excess warming of the earth’s environmental system. According to IPCC, the predicted temperature rises for the end of 21^st century may be in the range of 1.8^oC to 4^oC (IPCC, 2007). The climate change has complex impact on the livestock production. Temperature or heat stress will be one of the major environmental factor to in?uence the health and productivity of livestock population. The least tropically adapted livestock may be severely affected by heat stress. The manage mental and ameliorative practices can deal with the heat stress in short term, however the long term focus of developing genetic heat stress tolerance in livestock population will be a significant and impactful strategy.

Introduction

In the past few decades, persistent change in climatic variables coupled with global warming lead to the genesis of climatic stress. Currently climatic stress is considered as the most serious ultimatum to livestock’s growth, development, production and reproduction in tropics and subtropics including India. Livestock’s in tropical countries are most commonly affected by the menace of climatic stress. It has been shown that, climatic stress upsets animal’s body homeostasis resulting in grievous decline in livestock’s production and productivity across the world. In general, livestock adapt to the climatic insults via behavioural, physiological, biochemical, metabolic, endocrine and molecular responses. Despite of these thermal adaptation mechanisms, livestock’s witnesses the perils of climatic stress thereby incur major loss in their production and productivity. Therefore, in this changing climatic scenario, it is imperative to rigorously understand and explore the precise mechanism of thermal adaptation to generate climate resilient species which could upsurge the socio-economic status of the farmers as well as the country.

Introduction

Climate-smart small ruminant production is an approach for transforming and reorienting the small ruminant production under the new realities of climate change. The main objective of climate-smart small ruminant production is to make the production sustainable for national food security, enhancement of resilience, and reduction of greenhouse gasses emission. Climate-smart agriculture is that, which increases the sustainable productivity, enhances resilience, reduce greenhouse gasses (GHG) and boost the achievements of national food security and development goals (FAO, 2013). In India, most of the rural communities earn their livelihood on smallholder livestock production system and they are very much vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the need of the hour is to address the impact of climate change both in terms of adaptation as well as mitigation perspective (Vemeulen et al., 2013). The increase in population, the higher income, urbanization, and change in dietary preference leading to increased demand for animal products that pressurizing for higher productivity of livestock (Delgado et al., 1999; Thronton et al., 2007).

The mutton production in our country was 399 million Kg in 2012 which will be around 537 million Kg by 2020, and 840 million Kg in 2030 and 1317 million Kg in 2050. However, the requirement for mutton would be 813 million Kg by 2020, 986 million Kg by 2030 and 1408 million Kg in 2050. Similarly, the wool production in the country is 44.7 million Kg in present time (2011-2012), which have to be increased 150, 180 and 200 million Kg in 2020, 2030 and 2050, respectively. But the harsh climatic condition, shrinkage grazing resources, increase in cultivation and industrialization and decline interest of new generation for small ruminant rearing; making a question mark to meet the future demand in the current production trend. The scarcity of resources, impact of climate change and increase demand for mutton has made the traditional coping mechanism less effective (Sidahmed, 2008). Therefore, we need climate-smart sheep and goat production option that can achieve the triple win scenario of increasing productivity, adapting and building resilience to climate change through a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission (FAO, 2013; Shikuku et al., 2016).

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports (IPCC, 2007) suggests that consequently occurring climate extremes are likely to increase the frequency and intensity in the future. In the Indian context, events such as landfall of rare of rarest most intense pre-monsoon Tropical cyclone Fani (2019), back to back landfall of very intense tropical cyclones such as Phalini (2013) and Hudbud (2014), Cyclone Komen (2015), Extreme rainfall events of Kerala (2018 and 2019), Heavy rainfall events of over Northeastern states of India (2019), Cloud burst events of Uttarakhand (2013), Rainfall over Himachal Pradesh (2019), Mumbai Rain fall (2015) and extreme heat wave conditions of 1998, 2015 and many similar type of extreme events are not usual. However, at present there is no unanimity among scientists to exclusively and directly link such extreme weather events to climate change, however based on number of studies and observation data sets it is agreed that the impact of climate change is evident (beyond the natural variability) in many part of the globe including India. In 2019 monsoon season at least 1351 deaths happened to ?oods, heavy rainfall and landslides compared to 1550 for year 2018. In this manuscript, recent research findings related to extreme weather events in the context India are discussed in the following section-2, need for high resolution and long term data sets are emphasized in section-3, followed by recommendations as part of future preparedness, that will not only enable us to address these issues in a robust scientific manner but also provide us strong resilient society to face these extreme weather events in an optimized and effective manner to minimize the loss of lives, properties and socio-economic conditions of citizens.

Introduction

Climate change has been realised during 1840s when indisputable evidence of former ice ages was obtained. The climate has altered sufficiently in many parts of the world even within the last few decades which will affect the possibilities for agriculture and settlement. Reliable weather records have been kept only during the last hundred years or so, but proxy indicators of past conditions from tree rings, pollen in bog and lake sediments, ice core records of physical and chemical parameters, and ocean foraminifera in sediments provide a wealth of paleoclimatic data. The standard interval adopted by the World Meteorological Organization for climatic statistics is thirty years:1901–30, 1931–60, for example. However, for historical records and proxy indicators of climate, longer, arbitrary time intervals may be necessary to calculate average values. Tree rings and ice cores can give seasonal/annual records, while peat bog and ocean sediments may provide records with only 100- to 1,000-year time resolution. Hence, short-term changes and the true rates of change may, or may not, be identifiable.

The present climatic state is usually described in terms of an average value (arithmetic mean, or the median value in a frequency distribution), a measure of variation about the mean (the standard deviation, or interquartile range), the extreme values, and often the shape of the frequency distribution. A change in climate can occur in several different ways, for example, there may be a shift in the mean level, or a gradual trend in the mean values. The variability may be periodic, quasi-periodic or non-periodic, or alternatively it may show a progressive trend . First, it is important to determine whether such changes are real or whether they are an artefact of changes in instrumentation, observational practices, station location, or the surroundings of the instrumental site, or due to errors in the transcribed data. Even when changes are real, it may be difficult to ascribe them to unique causes because of the complexity of the climate system. Natural variability operates over a wide range of time scales, and superimposed on these natural variations in climate are the effects of human activities.

Climate change may manifest itself as rapid changes in climate in the short term or subtler changes over decades. Generally, climate change is associated with an increasing global temperature. Various climate model projections suggest that by the year 2100, mean global temperature may be 1.1–6.4 °C warmer than in 2010. The difficulty facing livestock is weather extremes, e.g. intense heat waves, ?oods and droughts. In addition to production losses, extreme events also result in livestock death (Gaughan and Cawsell-Smith, 2015). Animals can adapt to hot climates, however the response mechanisms that are helpful for survival may be detrimental to performance. In this article we make an attempt to project the adverse impact of climate change on livestock production. There is a two-way relationship between livestock production and environmental health.

Impact of climate change on livestocks

The potential impacts on livestock include changes in production and quality of feed crop and forage, water availability, animal growth and milk production, diseases, reproduction, and biodiversity. These impacts are primarily due to an increase in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration, precipitation variation, and a combination of these factors. Temperature affects most of the critical factors for livestock production, such as water availability, animal production, reproduction and health. Forage quantity and quality are affected by a combination of increases in temperature, CO₂ and precipitation variation. Livestock diseases are mainly affected by an increase in temperature and precipitation variation.

Climate change is now a global phenomenon and its impact on livelihood health and wellbeing, and overall quality of life is not deniable. No country is free from the overall impacts of climate change, but poor people of developing countries have been disproportionately affected by the adverse effects. Vulnerability in the context of climate change is a function of sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacities. Odisha is the 9^th largest state by area and the 11th largest state by population in India. The state has an area of 155,707 km², which is 4.87 per cent of the total area of India, and a coastline of 480 km. In the eastern part of the state lies the coastal plain. It extends from the Subarnarekha river in the north to the Rushikulya river in the south. The State is broadly divided into four geographical regions, i.e. Northern Plateau, Central River Basins, Eastern Hills and Coastal Plains. The climate of the state is characterized by hot summer and cold winter in the interior parts. The state has historically been highly prone to climate change and multiple hazards – mainly cyclones, droughts and ?oods. Natural disasters devastate millions of lives and livelihoods in Odisha each year. More children and women suffer from the effects of natural disasters and this is predicted to worsen as storms ?oods and droughts become more severe and frequent because of climate change.

Introduction

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change refers to the long-term changes (typically decades or longer) in the average state of the climate with statistically significant variations.

The climate change, defined as the long-term imbalance of customary weather conditions such as temperature, radiation, wind and rainfall characteristics of a particular region, is likely to be one of the main challenges for mankind during the present century.

A general definition of climate change is a change in the statistical properties (principally the man and spread) of the climate system when considered over long periods.

Climate Resilience

Climate resilience can be generally defined as the capacity for a socioecological system to: Absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change. Adapt, reorganize, and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts.

Organic certification is the procedure by which the accredited certification Body by way of a Scope Certificate assures that the production or processing system of the operator has been methodically assessed and conforms to the specified requirements as envisaged in the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP).

The NPOP provides for Standards for organic production, systems, criteria and procedure for accreditation of Certification Bodies, the National (India Organic) Logo and the regulations governing its use. The standards and procedures have been formulated in harmony with other International Standards regulating import and export of organic products.

In last few decades awareness about social and environmental issues has been increased. Agriculture is one of basic enterprise that has major role in these two issues . Organic agriculture is one of the agriculture production system that not only supportive to the environment but also sensitive to the social issues like employment, health, migration etc. Definitions given by two international organizations also verify this concept.

Over 85% of the rural population in India is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. About 50% of them being poor, most of their earnings are spent on meeting their basic needs, particularly food. With the increasing population over the last five decades, their per capita share of land and water resources has reduced substantially. As a result, rural people are faced with the problem of unemployment.

Inspite of agriculture being a major source of livelihood, the productivity as well as profitability in agriculture have been significantly low in the country. While the productivity can be attributed to illiteracy, lack of awareness, poor dissemination of technology, inadequate investment in agricultural inputs and poor communication and information services, lack of profitability is mainly due to inadequate and inefficient infrastructure required for forward and backward integration, poor post harvest and processing facilities and poor connectivity with market, resulting in exploitation by large number of middlemen. Traditionally, the farmers have been dependent on the Agricultural Extension Agencies of the State Government for information, input supply and marketing services. Over the years, these agencies are not being able to cope up with the growing responsibilities and specific needs of the farmers. To overcome this problem, Farmers’ Cooperatives have been promoted to supply various agricultural inputs and organise the marketing of farm produce. Although, this was an excellent concept, most of these cooperatives could not carry out the work economically and efficiently due to lack of commitment from the elected leaders and unfair trade practices by the competing traders. The farmers, not realising the inability of the extension agencies, are still dependent on the Government and external agencies to help them in managing their agri-business.

Heifers are future cows of the herd. Production and reproduction performance of cows depends on the care and management during calf and heifer stage. Rearing period of heifers can be divided into two stages, viz. from weaning to first service and service to calving.

Care of calf before birth

During the last 2-3 months of gestation the fetus grows rapidly. Calf draws a significant quantity of nutrients from the mothers system. It has to be replenished by additional feeding of the cow. A cow should be fed well-balanced ration for maintenance.

Fruits with their delightful colours, flavours and tastes are nature’s wonderful gift to mankind. Apart from being the most nutritious food in the form of easily digestible simple sugars, vitamins, minerals and many phyto-nutrients (Plant derived micronutrients), they provide unique health benefits due to their antioxidant properties and valuable fibre. Antioxidants help protect the human body from oxidant stress, diseases, and cancers, and also boost the immunity of the body thus developing the capacity to fight against various types of diseases. The insoluble dietary fiber in fruits is known to provide protection from conditions like chronic constipation, hemorrhoids, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, and rectal fissures etc. Due to their unique nutrition-profile the importance of fruits in our diet cannot be over emphasised.

Insects are a major limiting factor in fruit production. The infestation of insects pests on fruit trees in orchards adversely affects the quality and yield of fruits. The size, shape, taste, attractiveness and palatability of fruit deteroriates, due to which the market price is reduced and the growers incur losses. Fruit growers resort to use of chemical pesticides under such conditions. However many reports suggest that although the global production and use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing every year, but the damage due to insects has not decreased rather it has also increased, indicating that the use of pesticides is not the panacea remedy for all insect related problems. Many scientists are of the opinion that over-reliance on the use of synthetic pesticides in crop protection programs around the world has resulted in disturbances to the environment, pest resurgence, pest resistance to pesticides, and lethal and sub-lethal effects on non target organisms especially beneficial flora and fauna, including humans. Farmers spend thousands of rupees on pesticides. The residues of pesticides in food and fruits is yet another cause of concern. Fruits which are considered to be wonderful for health are often laden with unacceptable levels of pesticide residues nulling their beneficial properties. Pesticides have been linked to many diseases especially cancer. All these issues related with use of pesticides has triggered rethinking on the methods of control.The recent examples of the results of indiscriminate pesticides use , consequent crop failures and suicide by farmers now calls for introspection in this matter.

Importance of fruits in human diet is well recognized since time immemorial. They are important part of a healthy diet as natural sources of energy, essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants ever since the beginning of humancivilization. Our country is bestowed with varied climatic conditions, which had made it possible to grow diverse group of fruits from its temperate to tropical, to subtropical and even to arid niches. The cultivation of fruit crops is, presently, one of the most important and profitable proposition. Growing fruit crops translate into realization of more yield/ income from a unit area of land than any of the agronomic crops. However, there is need to considerably increase the yield of fruit crops, particularly under changing environmental conditions as under such conditions diseases are getting more prevalent. Therefore by adoption of proper protection practices, yield of fruit crops can be improved.

Plant diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasmas reduce crop yields (Khoury and Makkouk, 2010).Adoption and support for using participatory approaches help to farmers in disease management of fruit crops, reducing costs and improving production efficiency. Fungal, bacterial and viral diseases pose serious threat in the cultivation of fruit crops in India. To reduce the losses caused by plant disease, a complete knowledge of disease management strategies of fruit crops are essential which are as follows: