CEOs need to accelerate their action plans to safeguard the production of commodities critical to the global population and economy as heat stress and drought risk rise around the world, according to PwC's report, Climate Risks to Nine Key Commodities: Protecting People and Prosperity, published. The report, which analysed nine …
“Any need, any time” commission agents claim the Government cannot do without them, Food Corporation of India or not Even before anyone from the visiting Press team could open the floor for conversation, a battery of arhtiyas (commission agents) at the main mandi here started off: “ Hamara challenge hai …
South Asia is the region most vulnerable to increasing food inflation given that a large part of its population lives below or near the poverty line. An empirical analysis of the factors that could explain the increase in food inflation is presented in this paper, while the effect of food …
Notwithstanding deficient rainfall, Punjab has had a bumper paddy crop this year. Already, more than 126 lakh tonnes of paddy has arrived in various grain markets in the state. Of this, about 121 lakh tonnes has been procured by various state government agencies and 5.94 lakh tonnes by traders and …
The Indian monsoon is likely to fail more often in the next 200 years threatening food supplies, unless governments agree how to limit climate change, a study showed on Tuesday. The monsoon rains could collapse about every fifth year between 2150 and 2200 with continued global warming, blamed mainly on …
State fails to implement laws to stop stubble burning, tillers say they don’t have option Chandigarh: As Nasa satellite images over the past few days show, Punjab is literally on fire. In the images, the state is pockmarked with red dots which correspond to blazes deliberately lit by farmers to …
India, which relies heavily on the monsoon rains for its vital agriculture sector, may suffer “frequent and severe” failures in its monsoon system due to global warming in next 200 years, a new research has warned. The effects of this unprecedented decline in rainfall by 40-70 per cent would be …
With organic farming having great potential in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the state government is planning to set up a separate agency for certification of organic products. The state has formulated a progressive agriculture policy in 2008 under which special focus has been given to organic farming, …
Flooded rice fields are an important source of the greenhouse gas CH4. Possible carbon sources for CH4 and CO2 production in rice fields are soil organic matter (SOM), root organic carbon (ROC) and rice straw (RS), but partitioning of the flux between the different carbon sources is difficult. We conducted …
New Delhi In a bid to check diversion of foodgrains to the open market, the food ministry is planning to launch a cash transfer system for poor families. The plan, a first, will be done under the public distribution system (PDS) in six union territories in the next three months. …
Highlighting the possible disastrous consequences of field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) crops, an expert committee has recommended to the Centre to implement a 10-year moratorium on such trials on Bt. Transgenics in all food crops. In its interim report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) …
Revenue Department in the dark over its contents Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash has come out against the circulation of the Kerala Land Utilisation Bill without the knowledge of his department, sidestepping the rules of business that stipulate discussions at the departmental level. The Law Department has circulated the Bill on …
Sulphur oxide level and suspended particles in air beyond acceptable limits For residents of Bashanagar, Bharathi Colony, Mirza Ismail Nagar and Azad Nagar in the city, life hardly carries the same luster as before. The skies above the neighbourhoods carry dark clouds of smoke — emitted by more than 850 …
Rice grown by a farmer in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, returned a radioactive cesium reading of 110 becquerels per kilogram, exceeding the maximum of 100, the prefectural government announced. It is the first time that Fukushima rice has exceeded the current limit introduced in April. The Sukagawa rice did not make …
Crop domestications are long-term selection experiments that have greatly advanced human civilization. The domestication of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) ranks as one of the most important developments in history. However, its origins and domestication processes are controversial and have long been debated. Here we generate genome sequences from 446 …
Phytolith occluded carbon (PhytOC) which is stable in the soil environment is considered to be an important fraction of soil organic carbon and substantially contributes to the terrestrial carbon sequestration for long periods (millennia). Phytoliths are silica bodies produced by plants as a result of biomineralization process. During this process, …
It was high time the Government took stern action against the illegal land conversion taking place in different parts of the district, said K.K. Royson, former District Panchayat president. In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Royson who is also a member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee said …
Rising temperatures and high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are causing rice paddies to release more of the potent greenhouse gas methane, a new research has claimed. Researchers from the Trinity College Dublin, Northern Arizona University and University of California in Davis gathered all published research to date …
Hybrid seeds, including biotech seeds, represent new business opportunities in India based on yield improvement, according to Usha Barwale Zehr, chief technology officer of Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company. “Approximately 7,000 plant species are estimated to be used for human consumption, of which just four crops - wheat, maize, rice and …
Increased atmospheric CO2 and rising temperatures are expected to affect rice yields and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from rice paddies. This is important, because rice cultivation is one of the largest human-induced sources of the potent GHG methane (CH4) and rice is the world’s second-most produced staple crop.
If seed becomes a monopoly in the hands of a few multi-national corporations, it would mean destruction of biodiversity, said activist and environmentalist Vandana Shiva, calling upon people to join hands in the fight for freedom of seed. Addressing an impressive gathering at the ongoing People’s Biodiversity Festival (PBF) at …
