OPEN ELECTIVE- Sustainable Agriculture and food security-

Unit 1-

Food security- Current issues: Soil health, pollution, green revolution 2.0, intensive agriculture, climate change, water security, urbanization.

Unit 2-

Transgenic plants- The GM crop debate – safety, ethics, perception and acceptance of GM crops.
GM crops case study: Bt cotton, Bt brinjal.
Post-harvest Protection: Antisense RNA technology for extending shelf life of fruits and shelf life of flowers.
Genetic Engineering for quality improvement: Seed storage proteins, Flavors–capsaicin, vanillin.
Plants as biofactories for molecular pharming: edible vaccines, plantibodies, nutraceuticals.

Unit 3-

Biopesticides and biofertilizers- Biopesticides:Baculovirus Pesticides, Mycopesticides.
Biofertilizers: VAM, Nitrogen fixers, phosphate solubilizing bacteria.

Unit 4-

Agriculture in the 21st century- Precision agriculture, IOT enabled agriculture, micro climate monitoring, Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Aquaponics, plant-based meat, entrepreneurship and small scale bio-enterprises.

References:

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  2. Gamborg O.L. and Philips G.C.Plant cell, tissue and organ culture (2nd Ed.) Narosa Publishing House. New Delhi.1998
  3. Hammound J, P McGravey&Yusibov.V. Plant Biotechnology, Springer verlag.2000
  4. Heldt. Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt.Ltd. Delhi. 1997
  5. LydianeKyte and John Kleyn.Plants from test tubes. An introduction to
  6. Murray D.R. Advanced methods in plant breeding and biotechnology. Panima Publishing Corporation.1996
  7. NickoloffJ.A.Methods in molecular biology, Plant cell electroporation and electrofusion protocols-Humana press incorp, USA. 1995.
  8. Prescott, Harley, Klein’s Microbiology, J.M. Willey, L.M. Sherwood, C.J. Woolverton, 7th International, edition 2008, McGraw Hill.
  9. Foundations in Microbiology, K. P. Talaro, 7th International edition 2009, McGraw Hill.
  10. A Textbook of Microbiology, R. C. Dubey and D. K. Maheshwari, 1st edition, 1999, S. Chand & Company Ltd.