Livestock Census is a regular quinquennial exercise of Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD). The first Livestock Census was conducted in the year 1919 and last census i.e. 20th Livestock Census was conducted in 2019. The 21st Livestock Census exercise has been launched across the country on 25th October, …
THREE months after the country’s top science academies released their controversial report backing genetically modified (GM) crops and hastily withdrew it after it was panned by the scientific community, they are back with an updated report—and the verdict is that it is worse than the original. The Inter-Academy Report on …
The Sourcebook on Sustainable Agrobiodiversity Management is jointly compiled and published by GIZ and the School of Economics and Management of Hainan University, as well as the Institute of Low-Carbon Economy Policy and Industrial Technology of Hainan University. It is an important contribution to the sustainable management of agricultural biodiversity …
Something is stirring in paddy fields across India. New seeds, new crop management techniques and newly minted food security policies are about to hit the countryside. Not all of the changes that are being forged in Krishi Bhawan, headquarters of the Union agriculture ministry, in the top-flight research institutions across …
Plant genetic resources (PGR) scientists now recognize the importance of shifting from a singular focus on conservation to a focus on both conservation and utilization of germplasm in order to meet future challenges. This paper analyzes the patterns of distribution of pearl millet, six small millets, chickpea and pigeonpea germplasm …
IT IS an aphrodisiac. Treats fatigue and bone weakness. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) occupies a prominent position in traditional health systems like Ayurveda. In India the medicinal plant is cultivated on 4,000 hectares, mainly in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. But when it comes to being the most effective, a group of …
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has certified the controversial rice variety PAU-201 as fit for human consumption. The fate of 400,000 tonnes of rice, costing Rs 4,000 crore, was hanging in balance for more than a year; Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Central procurement agency, and the …
Agriculture is an area where new technologies are often applied to improve the yield of crops. Nano agriculture involves the involvement of nanoparticles in agriculture with the ambition that these particles will impart some beneficial effect to the crops.
From bust to boom to bust again: artemisinin, the key ingredient of front-line antimalarial drugs, is entering the third chapter of its turbulent history. A decade ago, the compound available only from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annua
The booklet discusses in detail and in simple language agricultural biotechnology as it compares with conventional breeding, the agricultural biotechnology tools used in crops such as tissue culture and micropropagation, molecular breeding and marker-assisted selection, and genetic engineering and GM crops. A section on Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for …
Plant breeders are turning their attention to roots to increase yields without causing environmental damage. Virginia Gewin unearths some promising subterranean strategies.
If any crop needs an evolutionary boost, it's rice. Nearly half of humanity relies on the stuff, and yields must increase more than 50 per cent by 2050 to feed growing demand, so the discovery of a gene mutation that can bump up yields by a full 10 per cent …
NAGAON, March 25: The Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Cell, AAU in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Nagaon and Regional Agriculture Research Station (RARS), Shillongani, organized a day-long training-cum-awareness progamme on
Among the abiotic stresses, drought is a serious limiting factor that reduces rice production and yield stability in rainfed ecosystems. Conventional breeding for drought resistance is slow in attaining progress due to poor understanding of genetic control of drought resistance. Molecular markers help in identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) …
Surendra Nath has switched to eating grass-pea, though he knows it is not good for health. But so is tobacco, he argues. He cannot do without pulses and pigeon-pea selling at Rs 100 a kg is beyond his means. The 45-year-old electrician-cum-security-in-charge at a housing society in east Delhi earns …
