Does Maturity Change the Chemical-Bromatological Makeup of Cladodes in Spineless Forage Cactus?

In Kutch (Gujarat District, India), there is a growing concern about the lack of good quality forage owing to the arid climate and poor soil health. Opuntia ficus-indica has been increasingly recognized as a drought-resilient forage in arid Kutch. This study seeks to identify the maturity phase of cactus cladodes with the best forage qualities. Five accessions of spineless forage cactus (CBG, No. 1270, No. 1271, No. 1308, and Bianca Macomer) and three cladode maturity phases (young, intermediate, and mature) were examined in a randomized block design experiment in a 5 _ 3 factorial arrangement. Although only mineral matter and total carbohydrate concentration were significantly different among the accessions, CBG showed better forage qualities than other accessions. Dry matter, organic matter, mineral matter, crude protein, ether extract, and total carbohydrate accumulations were higher in the intermediate phase. In the mature phase, relatively difficult to digest fiber components such as neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose increase. Our findings indicate that for spineless forage cactus grown in arid areas, the intermediate phase is the best phase to harvest cladodes for feeding livestoc

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Not AvailableThe rising population coupled with climate change has been threatening the global food and nutritional security. There is a growing concern on how agriculture will cope up with these challenges in the near future. Arid regions are characterized by low rainfall and higher evaporation. The little effective precipitation in these areas could not support high plant biomass and therefore, low vegetative cover is one of the main manifestations in arid soils. The unsustainable use of groundwater, low rainfall, land degradation, overgrazing etc. are adding to these concerns and threatening the livelihood resources especially in arid regions where harsh climate and problematic soils are prevalent.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe twenty-first century is marked with challenges such as increasing industrialization, clearing up of natural ecosystems, environmental pollution and rise of population in every second. These problems are threatening the delivery of ecosystem services and global food security. Human health is always at risk due to the increasing new diseases related to the exposure to extreme levels of pollutants. Bioremediation utilizes the inherent capacity of the microorganisms to degrade and decontaminate/detoxify the pollutants in the presence of optimum environmental conditions. Although very limited scientific evidences have quantified and reported the direct or indirect effects of climate change on bioremediation, it is highly important to discuss the climate change-related environmental parameters and its associated effects on soil microorganisms involved in bioremediation process. As a change in soil moisture or temperature markedly affects the crucial soil processes such as decomposition of soil organic matter and nutrient cycling, it will definitely affect the soil microbial activities. Therefore, with this background, this chapter discusses an overview of bioremediation, environmental factors that affect bioremediation and the possible effects of climate change on bioremediationNot Availabl

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In India, according to Coconut Development Board, India, 1975, 81 thousand hectares of land is under coconut cultivation according to a data provided by Coconut Development Board, India in the year 2014-2015. The productivity of coconut cultivation is 10345 nuts/ha in the year 2014-2015 with south Indian states especially Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Mathew, 2004) occupying the largest area of coconut production. The endosperm of the coconut is utilized for human consumption whereas the by-products serve as raw materials for manufacturing several other value added products. These byproducts are now studied for use in agriculture in a view to supplement or replace the inorganic fertilizers or other costly inputs used in cultivation by processing the byproducts into more productive form (Prabhuand Thomas, 2002). The present paper will focus on by-products of coconut and their utilization in agriculture. Coconut (Cocusnucifera L.) pith or coir (botanically mesocarp of the fruit), is a by-product product in coconut production and it has been studied in different areas of research because of its physical and chemical properties favourable for many purposes (Prabhu and Thomas, 2002).Coir pith is defined as an agro-waste produced during coir fibre extraction, constituting about 70% of coconut husk (Pazhanivel et al., 2011).The by-products obtained from the coconut industry goes out as waste and pollute the environment, if not properly managed. In order to convert these by-products such as coir pith and coco peat into a natural organic resource, it is processed and utilized as an economical input in agriculture as well as in horticulture. Processed coir pith is used as an excellent soil amendment because of its favourable physical properties in maintaining soil health. In addition to this, it finds its importance as medium for rooting for plants, hardening of air layers, storage of scions and horticultural produce. With its special characteristics of maintain high water holding capacity, it is gaining its interests in rain fed agriculture. Use of these by-products as mulch, remediation product, disease suppression, hydroponics etc. adds to its quality. Bringing out the several applications of coir pith/ coco peat, it deserves to gain the attention of the researchers to stud on its usefulness and its potential in food production.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe 21st century is marked with several challenges: human population explosion, climate change, land degradation, agricultural expansion, environmental pollution etc. With the increasing climate change, the areas under salt affected soils are expanding worldwide that adds more to the present concern of food productivity. In order to continue crop production without jeopardizing the environment, organic farming has been advocated in several parts of the world. However, a huge research and knowledge gap lies in the potential applications of organic farming in salt affected soils. Several questions, such as will the organic farming perform best in salt stressed conditions and how these abiotic stress affects the biofertilizers, need to be addressed. Therefore, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) with multifaceted properties are exploited to use in remediation of soil salinity and/or sodicity. The salt tolerant PGPRs are isolated from soils or halophytes and are used as biofertilizers, biostimulators or biocontrol agents in salt stressed conditions. The performance of these PGPRs will indicate the opportunities of organic farming in salt affected regions. This chapter succinctly discusses the mechanisms and application of soil beneficial microorganisms in alleviating salt stress and its limitations that could be overcome in future studies.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIn recent years, conservation agriculture (CA) is increasingly being promoted among small-scale farmers in the tropics as well as subtropics. The myriad of research results generated from the adoption of CA ranges from significantly higher benefits than conventional farming to disappointing results. Although CA has been recommended by several researchers as a part of sustainable agriculture, there might be certain gaps and issues related to practicing CA in small-scale farms. Do the benefits from CA remain the same for small-scale farmers? How well does CA fit with agricultural, social, economic, and political contexts for small-scale farmers particularly in developing nations? One of the low adoption rates of CA in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is the lack of economic incentive and high machinery cost for small-scale farmers in which the process of conversion from conventional farming to CA is not profitable. There might be certain limitations in the potential for subsidizing farmers to adopt CA using payments for ecosystem services/carbon credit schemes. Therefore, the smallholding farmers with low risk-taking abilities are unsure of practicing CA in their farms despite proven economic benefits from CA in several parts of the world. In this regard, there is an urgent need to move ahead of the prescriptive approaches to provide sustainable soil and crop management options for small-scale farmers in the region. Therefore, this chapter will focus to answer the question: “Does CA work for small-scale farmers in developing countries?” or “Is it just the mindset of the people or the negative results of CA trials that led to low CA adoption in different parts of the world?”Not Availabl

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Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii; family Asteraceae) is one of the most popular commercial flower crop and ranks 4th among cut flower demands (Sujatha et al., 2002). In India, 0.190 million hectares of area is under flower cultivation with a production of 1.031 million loose of flowers and 690.27 million of cut flowers in the year 2010-2011. Maharashtra is one of the pioneer states known for its protected flower cultivation and the area under protected gerbera cultivation ismostly confined in Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Nashik etc. that has nearly 600 hectares of land out of which more than 100 hectares area is being adopted for gerbera cultivation with 1476 lakh flowers per year with a productivity of 250 flowers/m2 (Anonymous, 2010). The success of gerbera cultivation under polyhouse depends largely on nutrient management apart from other factors. Plant nutrition is a difficult subject to understand completely, partially because of the variation between different plants and even between different species or individuals of a given clone. An element present at a low level may cause deficiency symptoms, while the same element at a higher level may cause toxicity. Further, deficiency of one element may present as symptoms of toxicity for another element. Deficiency of some nutrients may delay flowering and also reduces the aesthetic value. Balancing the plants growth, need periodic monitoring to assure the nutritional requirements are being met. When growers face nutritional problems with visual symptoms, knowing key symptoms of nutrient disorders with critical tissue concentrations would assist growers in problem identification. So, in this research paper, we aimed to study the effect of Mg and Fe on nutrient concentration and uptake of gerbera.A pot culture experiment was conducted using Goliath cultivar of Gerbera as a test crop to study the importance of Iron (Fe) and Magnesium (Mg) in the cultivation of Gerbera. The experiment was laid out with different treatments (factor A) including T1 as control (complete nutrition), T2 (excluding Magnesium) and T3 (excluding Iron), thereby accounting for 16 treatment combinations with five different days of harvesting (factor B). In both the deficiency cases (T2 and T3), there is a significant reduction in nutrient concentration of Mg and Fe in different plant parts such as crown + leaves (0.26% and 167 ppm), roots (0.15% and 145 ppm) and flowers (0.08% and 60 ppm) respectively. The nutrient uptake by gerbera plant also reduced due to the nutrient deficient treatments because of the lower production of the dry matter and also the lower nutrient concentration which causes a great setback in the cultivation of the gerbera due to low quality flowers with lower vase life and less aesthetic value. The experiment will generate information on the importance of Magnesium and Iron in the nutrition of gerbera which has got higher floricultural importance at international trade.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe huge loading of heavy metals in cultivated soils, ascribing to long term sewage irrigation, has led to serious soil pollution affecting crops as well as increasing risks to human health. Sewage irrigation is commonly followed in developing countries due to few obvious reasons: a shortage of good quality irrigation water and ample amount of soil nutrients contained in sewage water. However, long term sewage irrigation is causing a global threat not only to food security but also to nutritional quality. Although several reports on soil heavy metal pollution are being documented due to sewage water irrigation, a systematic compilation and in-depth study of the indices used to measure heavy metal related risk assessment is crucial. As heavy metal pollution negatively affects both the soil ecology as well as human health, ecological indices and human health risk assessment are being calculated, enticing the policymakers to understand the overall situation of heavy metal pollution. Such ecological indices include bioaccumulation index, individual contamination index, potential ecological risk, ecological risk factor etc. Human health indices include hazard index, hazard quotient, carcinogenic risk index etc. These indices highlight the heavy metal contamination levels in the sewage irrigated soils and its associated health risks. Therefore, keeping these views in mind, this chapter sought to succinctly compile, discuss several ecological monitoring and risk assessment indices related to heavy metal soil pollution and their interpretations through visualizations.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableBioremediation is a prominent and novel technology among decontamination studies because of its economic practicability, enhanced proficiency, and environmental friendliness. The continuously deteriorating environment due to pollutants was taken care of by the use of various sustainable microbial processes. It is a process that uses microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, green plants, or their enzymes to restore the natural environment altered by contaminants to its native condition. Contaminant compounds are altered by microorganisms through reactions that come off as a part of their metabolic processes. Bioremediation technologies can be generally classified as in situ or ex situ. In situ bioremediation involves treating the pollutants at the site, while ex situ bioremediation involves the elimination of the pollutants to be treated elsewhere. This chapter deals with several aspects, such as the detailed description of bioremediation, factors of bioremediation, the role of microorganisms in bioremediation, different microbial processes and mechanisms involved in the remediation of contaminants by microorganisms, and types of bioremediation technologies such as bioventing, land farming, bioreactors, composting, bioaugmentation, biofiltration, and bio-stimulationNot Availabl

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Not AvailableSoil erosion is the greatest threat to soil health and soil ecosystem services globally. Several studies are reported in literature on monitoring and assessment of soil erosion in semi-arid and humid regions both at catchment scale and field level. However, soil erosion studies are rare from arid regions especially Indian arid region. It is learnt that a variety of methods have been used for monitoring of soil erosion and rates of soil erosion vary considerably for regional and global estimates according to the method used to derive them. This chapter aims at providing an overview of methods used for monitoring runoff and soil erosion from agricultural lands. Then it describes different scales ranging from micro-plot to field and catchment scale assessment of soil erosion from agricultural/arable land. Thereafter, different devices and methods used for measurement or estimation of soil erosion in the literature are explained. Furthermore, a case study is presented to demonstrate a step-by-step methodology for measurement of runoff and soil erosion from agricultural fields of an arid region of Gujarat, India and results are discussed. The case study revealed that the highest soil loss occurred from the field plots of cultivated fallow (108.03 kg ha−1 yr−1) and unploughed fallow (78.95 kg ha−1 yr−1). The best intercropping practice in reducing field-level soil erosion is found as green gram intercropped with sorghum and pearl millet, which checked erosion of fertile soil by 69–79% more effectively than the cultivated and unploughed fallow plots. Moreover, challenges and issues faced in regular monitoring of soil erosion in arid climate are discussed.Not Availabl