GREENING of citrus or huanglongbing disease affects oranges, kinnows, lemons and other members of the citrus family. The bacterial infection, characterised by yellow leaves and unripe green fruits, is difficult to detect. A recent study offers insight into how the disease might be detected early in sweet oranges. The disease …
Afrequent traveller to rural parts of northern India will find something odd about the roadside sights on a ride from Jaipur to Jobner, especially during late March. On the fields flanking the nearly 50-km stretch, bundles of freshly cut wheat signal the harvest season. But instead of the golden ears …
INDIA’S Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has rejected a request by University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru to conduct trials on transgenic groundnuts for commercial development in difficult terrain. The university wanted to conduct trials for drought and salt tolerance. GEAC noted that transgenic groundnut expresses transcription factors— proteins that …
MAHABUBNAGAR A Shekhar, 25, committed suicide a year ago. A resident of Burgupalle village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahabub - nagar district, he had bought half a hectare (ha) for growing paddy. He borrowed Rs 1.5 lakh to sink three borewells but did not find groundwater. Shekhar could not repay the …
THE benign mychorrhizal fungi live in a mutually beneficial arrangement in the roots of most plants. They help the plant absorb essential nutrients like phosphorous and in return receive carbohydrates from the plant. But they do not bond with major food crops like rice. Swiss researchers recently claimed they can …
The articles in this publication have been contributed by experts and scientists from across the climate research sector to inform and empower Parliamentarians to make interventions on climate change issues. Each article seeks to outline the extensive and catastrophic impact that the changing climate will have on India unless we …
Satya Devi’s 35 apple trees have borne few fruits this year. The 60- year-old blames it on too little moisture in the soil and too much dust in the air that settles on the leaves. The horticulture department of Hima chal Pradesh agrees. Construction of dams on the Sutlej in …
AGRICULTURE experts from various countries gathered at St Petersburg in Russia on May 30-31 to strategize how to combat wheat rust diseases threatening the world’s food supply. Syria said 80 per cent of its wheat fields are infected by stripe rust. Three of the world’s top 10 wheat producing countries— …
MORE THAN a third of the commercial honeybees died during the winter of 2009-10, showed the annual survey data released by the US Agricultural Research Service. This is a continuous drop in the past three years. Several European and Asian countries have also reported losses at the American scale for …
Food history has become a bit of an exotica of late. We have Nicola Fletcher’s Charlemagne’s Table, Fellipe Fernandes Armesto’s Food A World History and Liz Collingham’s Curry. Tom Standage’s An Edible History of Humanity is an oddity in this smorgasbord. There is hardly any mention of restaurants, chocolate, oysters …
US $1 TRILLION WORTH OF MINERALS Afghanistan is suddenly richThe Pentagon recently announced that Afghanistan is sitting on mineral wealth worth US $1 trillion—about 1,000 times the government’s annual revenue. The untapped mineral deposits, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium, a key raw material for laptop, cell phone and …
THE government has raised the minimum support prices for pulses by up to Rs 700. It is a 15-30 per cent increase over the previous year. The government also promised an incentive of Rs 5 per kg if farmers sell black gram, green gram and pigeon pea to procurement agencies …
What is the agenda of the newly constituted Council? The National Advisory Council (NAC 2) will focus on the United Progressive Alliance government’s social sector programmes, which so far have been neglected. Bringing the focus back on laws and policy, with stress on social policy and the rights of the …
While management of natural resources is crucial, micro finance is a catalyst for achieving sustainable agriculture. The experience of HIH shows how micro finance has played a supportive role in the ecological journey of a large number of farmers in Tamil Nadu.
The incidence of cutaneous melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, tripled over the last 30 years in the United States. The reasons for this increase are not clear, although sun sensitivity and ultraviolet radiation are known risk factors. Farmers have been found to have an excess risk of …
This draft action plan on climate change by the Orissa government proposes strategies to move towards as a carbon conscious and climate resilient state. It envisages an outlay of around Rs 17,000 crore in 11 key sectors over the next five years and with this, Orissa is the first state …
Exemplary agricultural research supported by good government policies has ensured food security in India. It is the right time to focus on micronutrient malnutrition in the country. Recently, Zn deficiency in diet especially of young children below 5 years of age has received global attention. Zn deficiency diseases in infants …
with chemical pesticides accumulating in crops, entering the food chain and creating pests with the next level of immunity, biocontrol is taken a little more seriously. Bacteria, fungi and insect parasitic nematodes assume greater importance in agricultural research. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization was the first to use …
Victims of the 2008 Kosi flood in Bihar are awaiting compensation. They cannot farm because their land is full of fine silt. Officials in the flood-affected districts say villagers complain because they don’t understand the formalities—they need to furnish a first information report (fir) and death certificate to claim compensation. …
On the outskirts of Kathmandu, Siddhipur village has rediscovered the value of urine. More than 100 toilets in the village divert urine to farms, where it is used as fertilizer. It is not a new practice, though. The village was recycling urine before modern fertilizers were introduced. “In the past, …
