Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
Scientists at the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, have developed a new technology that allows plants to utilise the urea present in fertilisers more efficiently. A substantial part of urea, when added as fertiliser, is lost in the atmosphere. Urea is broken down to ammonia by …
Environmentally-sound farming techniques can be up to 40 per cent more profitable than currently popular methods. Integrated farm management (IFM), a new system, allows insecticides to be sprayed only if pests reach a threshold level. Crops are rotated to suppress weeds and maintain fertility. Those opposed to intensive farming argue …
The popular image of termites as timber-munching pests needs to be overhauled. In tropical forests, the vast majority of termites do not conform to the stereotype, say researchers at the National History Museum in London. Instead, most termites eat rotting vegetation in the soil and nest underground. They may be …
•Haryana is in the grip of a severe drought. The principal Kharif crops such as jowar, bajra and gawar have been totally destroyed. Paddy and sugarcane crops have suffered a serious setback in the rest of Haryana because of inadequate supply of canal water. •A recent World Bank study shows …
A red dye normally used in lipsticks will kill fruit flies if they eat it and are then exposed to ultraviolet light. The Agricultural Research Service of the US department of agriculture has found a novel way to induce these flies to eat the dye, by mixing it with a …
the World Bank ( wb ) would provide us $196.8 million for the National Agriculture Support Project to improve agricultural support technology in India. The project is expected to benefit poor farmers by improving relevant and practical agricultural technologies to help increase productivity and efficiency. It will also help bring …
Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, have discovered a fungus that can save tomato plants from the attacks of nematode worm. The fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus can parasitise eggs of the root knot nematode ( Meloidogyne incognita ) that infects tomato plants. The team found that of …
whenever the season's crop is harvested, a part of the surface soil is swept away by the wind. In this process, the world is gradually losing fertile soil. Every year, farmers harvest their crops, they leave their lands exposed to rain and storm. Due to this, agricultural soil is being …
agricultural scientists at the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (crida), Hyderabad, have identified neem clones which yield a substantial amount of the chemical azadirachtin, used as a biocide and in health care products. Scientists were looking for seeds with azadirachtin content higher than 0.4-0.8 per cent. Neem (Azadirachta indica) …
A simple and low-cost system has been devised in UK for restoring deserts. Called 'LandCover', the system is a growing medium based on a matrix that is an ultra water absorber and re-establishes agricultural growth on barren, sterile land. The matrix consists of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other agrochemicals in …
UNDER the initiative of the us-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (cgiar), a new global agricultural research system involving greater coordination with farmers and indigenous communities in the developing world has been agreed to. Said Ismail Serageldin, chairperson, cgiar, "The era of research which produces technological innovation without reference …
A long term plan for the protection of crops against civil unrest and drought is being drawn up by 12 African countries. Stocks of seeds will be stored by each country to fill up those of a neighbour struck by disaster. The directors of agricultural research of these nations have …
Scientists working at the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute , Kayamkulam, Kerala, have developed a new variety of coconut palm, which is highly resistant to the century-old root-wilt disease. It also produces a large number of nuts by crossbreeding a disease-tolerant variety
odours produced by plants can repel crop pests and invite insects' enemies. Researcher John Pickett of uk 's leading arable crop research centre at Rothamsted in Hertfordshire is developing perfumes that work as insecticides. Picketts' scents are produced by plants themselves to keep off unwanted pests ( New Scientist , …
researchers at the Long Ashton Agricultural Research Station near Bristol in southwest uk, are combining genetic engineering and largescale field experiments to find ways by which to reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. Cutting down on the use of such chemicals will help protect the environment and also …
Ninety per cent of the world's most important food crops are threatened because human behaviour is pushing pollinators towards extinction. American entomologists Stephen Buchmann and Gary Nabhan argue in their recently published book, The forgotten Pollinators , that "The world is facing an impending global pollination crisis that may have …
the alarm bells started ringing in September last year when a farmer in Ethuca, a small town on the banks of the river Murray in Northern Victoria, Australia, tried to clear his farm of an annual ryegrass, Lolium rigidum , which is a routine practice before the plantation of summer …
Investigators in France have shown that bioengineered plants that disrupt fungal cell walls are resistant to fungal pests and they can reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fungicides. The group has devel oped a transgenic rapeseed ( Brassica napus ) that produces a chitinase gene at high levels enabling …
