Tissue culture

Tissue culture- Plant tissue culture is a sub discipline of plant biotechnology. In plant tissue culture with the help of some biotechnological techniques the plants yield is increased or any desirable characteristics are developed in any plantss

Here a particular plant cell is cultured in an artificial conditions within a laboratory with the help of a particular nutrient media, with the help of this nutrient media the whole plant is developed with in a laboratory and the desired characteristics are developed in the plants. The artificial conditions should be free from any microorganism.

Two major properties of plant tissue culture technique

The plant tissue culture is basically based upon two techniques, these two techniques are base of this plant tissue culture-
1) Totipotency
2) Plasticity

Totipotency- This is the ability of a plant cell to grow completely in a nutrient media or to grow during plant tissue culture technique. The whole process of this plant tissue culture technique is majorly based on this property of cell, which determines that weather the plant cell will grief into a new complete plant or not.

Plasticity- This is another important property of a plant cell which decides the basics of plant tissue culture technique. This is also known as the property of adaptation, as we discussed that the plant cell is culture in the artificial environment so it is a major property of plant cell which decides weather the plant cell is capable of adapting the new artificial environment or not, of but it will be difficult for the cell to develop into a new plant.

We discussed the two major properties of plant tissue culture technique, now we will discuss the advantages of plant tissue culture technique , from which you will came to know that why the scientists are involved in this technique , what is the profit and andante of this plant tissue culture technique-

Advantages of plant tissue culture technique

1- Disease free plants- The plant tissue culture techniques ensure the development of disease free plants. As we see that the plants developed outside in natural environment affected by a number of diseases, this the main advantage of plant tissue culture technique that the plants developed from this technique are absolutely disease free, hence plant tissue culture technique helps in development of disease free plants.

2- Biosynthesis of chemical compounds- Synthesis of primary and secondary metabolites is a great advantage of tissue culture, these primarily and secondary metabolites along work pretty compounds helps in the adaptability of plants in the artificial environment and developing the disease free plants.

3- Increase in yield of plants- Plant tissue culture techniques helps in the development of such plants which youth higher thang the normal plants which are grown in natural environment. Thus provides continues supply of raw materials obtained through the plants. This increasing yield is the demand of increasing population.

4-Overall improvement of plants- Plant tissue culture techniques is helpful in the development of overall crop characteristics such as highest yield, disease free, good adaptability, etc. This is believed as one of the best advantage of plant tissue culture techniques. So as to improve the overall agricultural system of the nation and to ensure there food security and sustainability for all.

5- Healthy diet- If we get a disease free crop for food purpose, if will be definitely a healthy Dieu for all the human population storm the world. This disease free nutrition comes from plants developed with the help of plant tissue culture techniques, and we all know how important is a healthy diet for all. Thus a great advantage of plant tissue culture technique.

These were the main advantage of plant tissue culture technique, which tells us the importance of this technique of tissue culture in today's agriculture, this is beneficial for agriculture all around the world to develop the plant from plant tissue culture techniques so as to develop disease free plants as much as possible.

Food production

Food production includes all the processes involved in preparing the food from the raw materials, for human consumption. Food production includes various steps such as cleaning the raw material, packing the product, ingredients addition, etc. This is a great challenge in today's world to fulfils the requirement of  safe and healthier food without harming the environment, in today's world when the population is increasing dramatically. So, food production is considered an important branch of agriculture which ultimately provides the ready made food to the consumers from raw materials.

Food production and education

There is a very important role of education in food production, food is the basic requirement of human as well as of animals, and it is very important to ensure that what we eat should be healthy for us, thus food processing industries required educated professionals. Food production is not only just about distributing the food it includes a number of stages within it from checking the correct proportion of ingredients to making the food ready for marketing or make the food marketable.

Food industries are growing rapidly as per seeing the requirement of food production there are several programes also running by the government of various countries around the world. The food is not went directly from farm to kitchen, it has to be passed from certain guidelines before serving finally, passing from these guidelines makes these food eligible for human consumption. In some countries for e g. India(FSSAI) there is a separate body formed by government which ensures the processing of food and ensure that only the right food material reaches the market which suites the human health.

Process of food production

As we already discussed food production is not a one step process it includes a number of stages from testing the food to making it eligible for market. These processes are described below separately:-

1-Preservation- Presevation  is the basic step in which the producers ensures the preservative quality of food. It can be done by various techniques such as by ,modern methods- this method includes the process like refrigeration., traditional methods- it includes the methods like drying and salting.

2-Enriching protein quantity- Protein is one of the most important constituent of food , as the food is directly ingested by humans an animals so it must fullfils the content of protein for human body.

3-Additives addition- Along with the protein implementation there are other additives too which must be present in a healthy food such as nutritional value, fat, vitamin and other additives too so this is another important step under food production.

These were major steps included under the food processing and its production. These steps must be fuctioned properly so that people should enjoy a healthy diet and and people should get proper dietery requirement with this food. That's why food production is such a complicated and important process.

What is biogas and biomass

What is biogas?

Biogas is defined as a biofuel that is produced naturally by the decomposition of various organic matte and biomass. Biogas is an environment friendly gas, and used by human beings for various purpose, this gas is known for his environment friendly behaviour because it helps to resolve few major environmental problems. There are several other reasons also which make this gas environment friendly for eg. biogas is formed in biogas plant  by utilizing  old organic wastes and degraded biomass, this also helps in keeping the environment clean along with the production of an efficient biofuel. Because these organic wastes otherwise cause pollution in earth.

Benefits of biogas production

As we discussed above biofuel is produced by utilizing the organic waste,which prevent the organic waste from creating pollution, this point itself is a major benefit of biogas production, which prevents the earth from pollution.

Biogas reduces the content of harmful gases in environment , for eg. methane a harmful gas released in the atmosphere from the organic wastes is converted to Carbon dioxide during the production of biogas,in this way biogas helps in decreasing the content of harmful gases in environment.

Biogas is helpful as during biogas production some digesters works in treating the municipal, industrial waste and even agricultural  waste. Thus these biogas digesters find a proper place for the decomposition of municipal wastes.

As biogas is a well known biofuel hence useful in several power operations such as used in electricity production, through the excreta of animals and along with this it is also helps in agricultural  operations, thus biogas is helpful in every aspect either it is environmental or economic.

Uses of biogas

There are several use of biogas we will discuss about these uses seperately in this part :-

• Used for cooking purpose- Biogas is commonly known for cooking purpose from ancient times, there was a time when it was a household gas, and most of the manure produced in countries like India was biogas production and this biogas was later on used for cooking purpose.

• Used as a fuel for vehicles- In some countries people are using biogas for running vehicles on road. This is very different and significant use of biogas which makes it so different from any other gas or any other biofuel.

• Used for electricity production- Biogas through some special techniques( by heating stirling motor)  is also used for production of electricity. Although the formation of this electricity is not much efficient but still it is a plus point of biogas that it can be used for the formation of electricity.

All these points described that how beneficial is biogas and biomass for our environment and for the demands of human need for eg. in cooking purpose or in electricity production. so, not only it is beneficial for environment but also fullfills the demands of human beings.

Soil profile and horizons

What is soil profile?

Generally soil  is found in layers, these layers are arranged in a definite pattern during soil formation, this sequence of the soil layers is called soil profile.
These particular layers of soil profile are called horizons. The main layers are top  soil, sub soil and parental rock.

Horizons

Horizons are those layers in which the soil is arranged  and form soil profile during its formation. There are basically five such horizons named as  O horizon, A horizon, B horizon, C horizon and R horizon.  These horizons are seperately described here :- 

•  Horizon O-  This is an organic horizon , so named O horizon . It is mainly composed of partially decomposed organic matter.

This horizon is again composed of two regions O1 region and O2 region.

O1 region- This region is uppermost layer and mainle consists freshly fallen dead leaves and animals. Prior to they undergoes decomposition.

O2  region- This is the second region under the O1 region and consists of newly dcomposed dead remains of plants and animals. In O2 region decomposition has just begun.

• Horizon A -  This is the ZONE OF ELUVIATION. It is also known as top soil, this is the mineral horizon rich in silica and contains rich amount of organic matter. A horizon is generally having dark colour this dark colour is due to the presence of humus which  mixes with weathered minerals, Which also helps to identify this horizon characterstically.

• Hoirzon B-   B horizon is commonly known as  Sub soil. Sequencely this horizon is present below the O and A horizon and chiefly consists large amount of  clay , silicate and aluminium. I is also known as the ZONE OF ILLUVIATION because the minerals accumulates in this region. The roots of big trees ends up in this region. It is lighter in colour i.e., reddish brown , as compare to the above layer. This layer is located below the A horizon and above the C layer thus intermediate between these two layers, i.e., Horizon A and horizon C.

• Horizon C - It does not contains any organic material and is an inorganic layer. I helps in locking all the properties of the above layer that we studied above.. It contains weathered rock and sediments that is formed during the soil formation. The C horizon is located below the C horizon. The depth of this layer is very deep this can be noticed by the fact that only one layer is present below this layer that is Horizon R. Roots of trees are reached till this layer.

• Horizon R - It is the  lowermost layer that is found below the C horizon and consists mainly unweathered parent material. It is a bed rock, as only parental materials are present in this layer no soil is present here in this layer. Many few roots are present in this layer as it is not very easily possible to reach in this region. This is the last layer out of the all five layers, roots of many plants cannot reach to this layer, there is hardly any plants or trees whose roots reach to this layer, because this is the last layer of soil and it is difficult to dug up to this layer.

So these were the major description of horizons which makes up the soil profile and all this process of arrangement of soil horizons is known as soil formation, during which the soil horizons or layers are arranged in the correct sequence to make up the soil profile.

Importance of aquaculture

Definition:- Aquaculture is the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants and other aquatic organisms. It is also known as aquafarming. Although many people think the aquaculture is only related to the culturing of fishes, but this is not true, all aquaculture is more than the cultivation of fishes, aquaculture includes cultivation of all the aquatic species, i.e, aquatic plants and other aquatic organisms.

Fisheries department (ICAR)

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing segment  of agriculture. Aquaculture industries are growing very fast and producing and culturing all type of species i.e., either marine species or fresh water species. The progress of these industries in modern era shows the fast rapid growth of aquaculture. In agricultural dominated country like Indian subcontinents along with other agriculture segments aquaculture is mostly focused, which is very important branch of agriculture and can not be left untouched if you want to develop the agriculture of the particular area. Here we will discuss about types of aquaculture, types of aquaculture and the importance of aquaculture along with disadvantage of aquaculture. After reading this article you will have complete knowledge about aquaculture.

Types of aquaculture

On the basis of aquatic species cultured the aquaculture is of following types:-

1.  Marine aquaculture - Marine aquaculture is also known ad mericulture.In marine aquaculture marine species are cultured. Th production of this aquaculture is basically in open oceans, sea water, and the water body which is having marine water. As the oceans and sea water is marine in nature that's why this type of aqaculture is known as marine aquaculture. Generally aquatic organisms like fishes are cultured in marine aquaculture which is responsible for such a growth of aquaculture in today's world.

2.- Freshwater aquaculture-  Fresh water aquacultire is the culturing of freshwater species. Fresh water species are generally those species which are found in fresh water bodies such as lake or pond. Some species of fishes such as mahasheer is a common example of fresh water aquaculture.

Importance of aquaculture

There are several importance of aqaculture for human beings which lead to a huge growth of aquaculture because aquaculture is  now one of the important aspect of agriculture. Some of the major importance of aquaculture are explained below:-

1. Fulfils human demands-  Aquaculture fullfils the human demand of aquatic species. It ensures the continuity of aquatic species especially for human consumption. Selling the aquatic species such as fihes is the only source of income for some part of the population . Hence fulfilling human demands is an important aspect of aquaculture and it also determines the survival for some people like fisherman.

2.  Increases food production- Aquaculture increases the food production. As we know the increasing population is huge threat of todays generation. Increasing population may lead to food shortage here it is important that the food production should maintained adequately, here comes the importance of aquaculture which increases the food production, some species of aquaculture are consumed by human beings such as fishes which  ultimately lead to increased food production.

3.  More buisness oppurtunities- Aquaculture brings mire buissness ideas for those people who are interested in farm culturing or farm buissness. Culturing fishes and selling them in market after breeding is a great example of buisness oppurtunty from aquaculture.

4. National export increased-  Large amont of fishes and other species cultured inside the nation by farees are furter exported to foreign nations which helps in increasing the GDP of the nation therefore we say that agriculture is backbone of India's economy as aquaculture is fastest growing segment of agriculture and conteibute a lot in increasing the economy of the nation.

5. Promoting employment- Aquaculture provides employment to millions of people who are involved in aquaculture. People like fisherman and other workers involved agriculture industries are employed through aquaculture. Fisheries department of government provides employment to a number of government workers.

Disadvantage of aquaculture

1- Pollution - Aquaculture is also responsible for increasing water pollution. People use irrelevant techniques to catch the species, such as use of bleaching powder in water to kill the fishes pollutes the water and  throwing the killed organism in open atmosphere also a source of pollution So aquaculture sometimes lead to pollution.

2- Habitat destruction- When fisherman kills the fishes and  other aquatic species either fresh water or marine, this lead to destruction of natural habitat of the aquatic species. This destruction also affect the ecosystem and life cycle.

3. Disease transfer- Consuming unhealthy or disease fishes may spread the disease to consumers either humans or  animals. This sometimes caused a huge disease in population which lead to a great threat in population and keep spreading even from person to person.

4. Workers safety- Workers safety should be foremost during culturing aquaculture . There are risks involved during some activities which may affect workers, so workers should be secure during aquaculture and they should not let to go their life in risk.

These were the importance of aquaculture along with their demerits. Although it is beneficial to some extents but sometimes it is hazardous too.  Some example of aquaculture is raising cat fish in fresh water pond and fish farming is another example of aquaculture.

Sustainable agriculture and development

Sustainable agriculture is a basic element of sustainable development. Sustainable agriculture is a way of producing  food that is healthy for consumers i.e., either humans or animals. The most basic feature of the sustainable agriculture is that it does not harm the environment and is beneficial for environment.Sustainable agriculture ensures the respect of animals and the food produced should be healthier for animals too.

sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is not only beneficial for health and environment friendly but also provides fair wages to farmers and the chemical free farming avoids the costly inputs for farmers thus sustainable agriculture is economic friendly and provides fair wages to farmers.
Sustainable agriculture is humane for workers and supports the rural community in various aspects and enhances the farming of rural community. As we know in agriculyural country like India most of the rural community is engaged in farming thus sustainable agriculture helps in the overall development of rural community.

Why do we need sustainable agriculture?

Today due to long term agriculture practices the land is over- manipulated due to over manipulation the fertility of soil is loosing. Erosion, desertification and wrongusage of land is also responsible for loosing soil fertility.  These reasons are promoting soil erosion and over application of chemical fertilizees and pesticides are exploiting soil and affecting farming. Other than these population is inreasing, forests are destroying Flood, erosion and desertification cannot be avoided easily. There is no more agricultural land that is available for coming generation, but increasing population demands a lot of agricultural land, food , water and other resources.

The use of chemicals in tbe agri fields increased to a huge extent afte world war 2, and today it is increased to a huge extent, that are causing te waste of resources and causing the environmental pollution which treatens the life of coming generationss.

Objectives of sustainble agriculture

To control the above issues, to live a healthier life and to provide a safe environment to upcoming generation we should accept the sustainable agriculture. There are certain objectives of sustainable agriculture these objective are described here :-

• Preserves biodiversity- As we know due to various chemicals used in farming today the soil biodiversity is declining and the microorganisms in soil such as earth worms are killed by these chemicals. But the sustainable agriculture is free from any of these chemicals thus it plays a major role in preserving the biodiversity and we an say that sustainable agriculture preserves biodiversity. Not only soil microrganisms but also other organisms are indirectly affected by sustainable agriculture by the healthier food produced by sustainable agriculture.

• Avoids deforstation- Deforstation is another faulty practice by today's genertion, sustainable agriculture helps to reduce this faulty purpose, cutring of trees lead to a great threat to environment as due to deforstation the number of trees arecreducing so the amount of water is also reducing which affects the survival of coming generation.So, deforstation should be stopped as much as possible which is possible by performing sustainable agriculture.

• Protects the economy of farmer-  This is one of the main objective of sustainable agriculture i.e., to increase the income and protects the economy of farmers. As sustainable agriculture do not include any costier chemicals as inputs , thus save the investment of farmers and in result higher productivity due to natural fertilizers is another advantage of sustainable agriculture. Thus it is helpful in ovrall economic development of farmers.

• Provides good health to society- We already discussed above that sustainable agricultre is a production offood that healther to consumers as well as fr animals. As it provides heathier food therefore it prvides a good health to society which is another great advantage of sustainable agriculture and attracts a lot of people towards it.

• Maintain quality of water- The dribking water is very less in amountin aome areas of country like India. We saw a lot water crisis in some area inspite of high level of wate we cannot rhe wawe dr deinking, this is because of bad water quality. Sustainable agricultur provide a good water quality which matters a lot for health of human beings.

• Soil conservation- Soil conservation is very much needed in todays era, because soil erosion is on peak due to faulty human practices. The loss of soil due to erosion can be controlled by sustainable agriculture, so that the soil remain fertile not only for toays generarion but also for upcoming generations, so the ere should not be any scarcityif food and other resources for coming generations and they should live properly.

• Safety of community- Safety is foremost for any community , the improper practices of people such as use of chemicals in agriculture affectng the safety of community, but sustainable agriculture assures this safety to the farmers and population either in name of economy or in health purpse, it provides overall safety to the community.

Thus, it is not only important but necessary to accept the sustainable agriculture in our life it is beneficial for both farmers as well as for consumers. This helps the farmers in getting the actual price of their goods thus protects the economy of the farmers and provides healthy life to the consumers.

Agriculture extension

The exension education which helps in extending the scientific knowledge of agriculture to the    farming community for the enhancement of agricultural production is called agriculture extension.  It also helps in value addition of the products as well as proper marketing of the commodities along with the application of latest technologies for increasing income of the farming community.

Properly cultivated land

Agriculture extension and agriculture development

Agriculture plays an important role in the development of agriculture. It awares the farmers to felt their needs and provides te way to their felt needs. Some of the major roles of agriculture extension in the devlopment of agriculture are explained below :-

• Extension helps to change the attitude of the farmer towards positive direction, increases their knowledge, and enhance their skills such that their skills meet modern requirements. Attitude, knowledge and skills of the farmers an be changed with the help of extension education and the behaviour of the farmer can be directed towards desired direction.

• The extension teaching methods are very effective teaching method to transfer the knowledge from extension worker to learner. It involves most of the practical work and farmers observe the benefits by themselves.  The extemsion education works with the pinciples of learning by doing and seeing is believing approach.

• Traning and visit system of agriculture extenion is found to be effective and agriculture extension contribute a lot in promoting green revolution. Training and visit system was helpful in promoting green revolution and and spread the green revolution in South Asia.

•  Agriculture extension had played a major role developing the leadership quality among farmers and helps in organizing farmers into groups such as farmers interest groups and other farmers oranisation for the development of agriculture an to raise the voice of farmers for their demands. It helps in increasing the income of the farmers and develop their agro buisness.

Principles of agriculture extension

There are several objectives of agriculture extension. Some of these objectives are described here:-

• Principle of Cultural difference- There are cultural difference between the farmers and the extension agent. Difference maybe in their habit and any other cultural factors. So provide success to the extension work it should be in hormony with the cultures of the farmers and the extension workers.

• Gross root Principle-  Extension work should be fit in the local situation and should start with the local people keeping in mind the availability of natural resources of that region. It should start with the existing situation and purely based on what the local people have initially.  

• Indegeneous knowlede principle- Extension worker should not avoid the Indigeneous knowledge system,  it should not be ignored by them and indegenous knowledge  should be involved in their project. Instead of ignoring the indegenous knowledge system it should be implemented in the life of the farmers.

The above principle shows the importance of extension education in the development of agriculture and role of extension education in changing the attitude, knowledge and skills of the farmers towards positive direction, which directly influence the agriculture production and thus develop the agriculture conditions overall.  Seeing is beleiving and learning by doing is a great approach of the extension worker to train the farmers and to enhance their skills.