This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on soil health indicators. The first chapter describes indicators and frameworks for soil health currently in use. It evaluates the principles underpinning current approaches to monitoring soil quality/health and shows these principles have been applied in the development of a practical soil health toolkit for use by UK farmers. The second chapter reviews the range of physical, chemical and biological indicators of soil health and how they can be used in practice. It focusses on measuring soil health in organic vegetable cultivation and, in particular, ways of measuring the effects of adding organic amendments to improve soil health. The third chapter discusses key issues in soil organic carbon (SOM) modelling and the development of increasingly sophisticated, dynamic SOM models. It looks at the role of SOM models in improving soil health monitoring and developing decision support tools for farmers The final chapter reviews current challenges in collecting more systematic and reliable data on earthworm communities, including issues in identifying different earthworm groups. It includes a case study on developing a robust method for accurate measurement of earthworm communities in soil in assessing and improving soil health.

The Impact of Nanoparticles on Agriculture and Soil, part of the Nanomaterials-Plant Interaction series, contributes the most recent insights into understanding the cellular interactions of nanoparticles in an agricultural setting, focusing on current applications and means of evaluating future prospects. In order to ensure and improve the biosafety of nanoparticles, it is a primary concern to understand cellular bioprocess like nanomaterial's cellular uptake and their influence on cellular structural, functional and genetic components. This book addresses these and other important aspects in detail along with showcasing their applications in the area of agriculture. With an international team of authors, and experienced editors, this book will be valuable to those working to understand and advance nanoscience to benefit agricultural production and human and environmental welfare. In-depth knowledge of these bioprocess will enable researchers to engineer nanomaterials for enhanced biosafety.

The increasing demand for food as well as changes in consumption habits have led to the greater availability and variety of food with a longer shelf life. However, these items, when not properly preserved, can lead to severe food-borne illnesses that can be fatal. Thus, countless studies are now geared towards the processing, distributing, and safe storage of foods. Novel Technologies and Systems for Food Preservation is an essential reference source that discusses novel and emerging cooling and heating technologies, processes, and systems for food preservation, as well as improvements for control and monitoring systems that aim to foster energy efficiency, equipment safety, and performance. Additionally, it looks at concepts that may be useful for the development of new policies and legislation concerning food preservation. Featuring research on topics such as energy efficiency, food quality, and legislation policies, this book is ideally designed for government officials, policymakers, food and service industry professionals, food safety inspectors, researchers, academicians, and students.

This book comprises of six sections giving the state of the art information in the following topics: Functional foods: Scope, Market Opportunities and Recent trends, Functional food products: Ingredients and Functionality, Functional food products: Formulation and Processing Technology, Functional food products: Packaging and Storage Stability, Functional food products: Prevention, Disease Control and bioavailability, Future prospects of functional food. The book is exclusively targeted for food scientists and technologists, and scientists working in related fields. The book also presents practical information for use in functional food product development. It is also intended for use by practitioners in functional food companies and food technology centres and will also be of interest to researchers and students of food science and technology. With recent scientific studies, this book provides readers with a comprehensive and up-to-date scientific knowledge about the functional food science and technology. The book presents a most updated knowledge on the regulatory status of functional food in different countries. This information, which is seldom available, is essential for the commercial aspect of functional food. Also, core discussion on the reliable and economical scale up of laboratory-based extraction and purification techniques for different functional ingredients is also presented in the detailed manner in the book. A critical issue in the development of functional foods is health aspects and its role in disease control. In section V, Functional food products: Prevention, Disease Control and bioavailability, a variety of examples are discussed indicating the role and action of functional ingredients in preventing disease. The present book also addresses the key issue of processing and its effects on the bioavailability of bioactives. With the advent of the latest scientific technique in the latter half of the 20th century, area of functional food has evolved to the current state of the art.

This book has been written for the under-graduate students of Dairy Technology course being offered by different Dairy Science Colleges and various Agricultural and Deemed Universities across the country.

The application of machines and better power sources to enhance agricultural production has been one of the most significant developments in agriculture. Mechanization of agriculture is needed for development and optimal utilization of natural resources leading to higher productivity and reduced cost of production for greater profitability, economic competitiveness and sustainability. Mechanization also imparts capacity to the farmers to carry out farm operations with dignity, comfort and freedom from drudgery, making the farming agreeable vocation for educated youth as well. It helps the farmers to achieve timeliness in farm operations and apply costly input with reduced quantity for better efficacy and efficiency. Small and marginal farmers can now make use of high capacity agricultural machines on custom hire basis. The results of this development can be seen in many aspects such as increase in productivity and production per worker, precision in application of crop inputs, increase in cropping intensity due to timeliness of operations, increase in the quality of produce, reduction in grain losses and increase in farm employment. Mechanization is particularly advantageous when it can minimize a high peak labour demand that occurs over a relatively short period of time each year. Mechanization also encourages better management of farm inputs, improvement in working conditions and performance of jobs that would otherwise be difficult by hand. It also helps in reducing the cost of production. This book 'Mechanization of Cultivated Crops' covers the farm tools and equipment used in different operations such as land development, tillage, seeding/planting, interculture, fertilizer application, plant protection, harvesting and threshing and residue management. The book can be referred as a textbook for the under graduate students of agriculture and under graduate and post graduate students of agricultural engineering.

The book Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation is intended as a text book of micro irrigation design and practices for the students of the agricultural sciences and the professionals and workers in the field of micro irrigation. The book discusses the type and components, hydraulics and design, installation and maintenance of micro irrigation system. It contains good number of numerical as example and task to get the students familiar to the requirements, complicacies, and possible remedies in actual working condition. In addition to conventional broad and short questions in every of the book there are multiple choice questions to assist the students in preparing the competitive examinations.

The papers included in this book have a broad coverage of the topics related to new technologies in functional foods and nutraceuticals, fruits and vegetables and their by-products as valuable ingredients for functional foods and nutraceuticals, potential bioactive components from various food sources, trends and development of nutraceuticals and functional foods as well as functional food and nutraceuticals as ingredients in the value addition for health promotion, standardization and quality control. This compilation helps to overcome the problems faced in exploring the potential of nutraceuticals in naturopathy and device strategies to encounter such problems.

Dairy Technology is the industrial, non-farm phase of the tremendously large, dynamic and complex dairy industry. This phase represents a combination of science, engineering, business, and art as applied to all dairy and dairy-type foods and their industries. Dairy and dairy-type foods represent a major segment of the vast and varied food industry. This comprehensive book has been written encompassing entire gamuts of manufacture of dairy products, functional foods, utilization of dairy byproducts, cleaning and sanitization and quality assurance. The main objective of the book is to provide the latest information in a consolidated form at one point to meet the requirements of not only undergraduate and postgraduates students but also teachers and dairy professionals.

This is a textbook on Dairy Plant Management and Dairy Waste Management which is a part of the course curriculum for the undergraduate and post graduate students of Dairy Technology.

Book of combination of basic concepts, scientific depth with practical usefulness, the book carries information on: product and process development, production, quality assurance and quality control food production, processing, food chemistry, food and industrial microbiology, food process engineering food trade and business management, food additives, food preservation, food spoilage food packaging, food labeling, food legislations and regulations. It also assembles the information on food biotechnology, functional foods and nutraceuticals and top food and beverage companies in the world. This book is a compilation of the wealth of knowledge which can guide the students, who are preparing for the competitive exams, especially for GATE, P.G entrances of CFTRI, ICAR, SLIET, IICPT, NIFETM, UICT and State Agricultural University entrance examinations. It is also useful book for those preparing for ICAR, SRF and NET-ARS Exams.

Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands addresses the concerns surrounding global food scarcity, especially focusing on those living in arid and dry lands The book touches on food crises in dry regions of the world and proposes halophytes as an alternate source of consumption for such areas. Halophytes, those plants that thrive in saline soil and provide either food source options themselves, or positively enhance an eco-system's ability to produce food, and are thus an important and increasingly recognized option for addressing the needs of the nearly 1/6 of the world's population that lives in these arid and semi-arid climates. Including presentations from the 2014 International Conference on Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands, this book features insights from the leading researchers in the subject. It is a valuable resource that includes information on the nutritional value of halophytes, their genetic basis and potential enhancement, adaption of halophytes, and lessons learned thus far.

Dielectric Properties of Agricultural Materials and Their Applications provides an understanding of the fundamental principles governing dielectric properties of materials, describes methods for measuring such properties, and discusses many applications explored for solving industry problems. The information in this reference stimulates new research for solving problems associated with production, handling, and processing of agricultural and food products. Anyone seeking a better understanding of dielectric properties of materials and application of radio-frequency and microwave electromagnetic energy for solution of problems in agriculture and related fields will find this an essential resource.

This book incorporates the extensive and updated basic information on the subject authored by the scientists of international repute to understand the various concepts. This book presents latest comprehensive and authoritative explanation through different angles of basic technologies in Farm Machinery, Farm Power and Thermodynamics.

This book shares the latest findings on this topic, systematically introduces readers to advances made in robotic harvesting around the globe, and explores the relations between the development of robotic harvesting and the respective social/economic conditions and agricultural business patterns in various countries/regions. Due to the unstructured setting it is used in, and to the significant differences between individual fruit and vegetable targets, robotic harvesting is currently considered to be one of the most challenging robotics technologies. Accordingly, research into this area involves the integration of various aspects, including biomechanics, optimization design, advanced perception and intelligent control. In addition to rapid and damage-free robotic harvesting, which reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, further aspects addressed include gripping collisions with viscoelastic objects, using lasers to cut plant material, plant-fruit response to vacuum sucking and pulling, and performance probability distribution. Highlighting outstanding innovations and reflecting the latest advances in intelligent agricultural equipment in China, the book offers a unique and valuable resource.