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 …
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (cag) recently unearthed a Rs 2,125 crore scam involving the Food Corporation of India (fci), under the Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution (mocafpd). cag has charged both fci and the ministry with unduly favouring foodgrain exporters in fixing the …
us scientists who developed a microbial fuel cell (mfc) to simultaneously clean wastewater and produce electricity, have now altered the cell to produce almost four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone. Hydrogen can be used as a clean fuel. In …
the use of combine harvesters in India for rice and wheat is generating millions of tonnes of crop residue every year. To dispose the waste, farmers usually burn it. This causes significant loss of nutrients in the soil and destroys its microbes, besides adding to greenhouse emissions, a study by …
in a move that will benefit Punjab farmers tremendously, the Multi Commodity Exchanges of India Ltd (mcx) and the Punjab State Cooperative Supply & Marketing Federation (Markfed) have collaborated to provide them with the option to get into futures contracts for wheat. A futures contract is an exchange-traded contract that …
The rice-wheat annual double cropping system occupies an estimated 0.5 million hectares in Nepal where it provides food for about 23 million people. Current production levels of both rice and wheat are far below their reported potential with N-deficiency being the major production constraint. Pot and field experiments were conducted …
Newly developed Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) technique has been used for monitoring of wheat grain and flour samples for endosulfan residues. Data indicated that eight samples out of fifteen contained endosulfan residues. The average concentation varied from 0.65-6.1 ppm. ELISA data correlated well with GC analysis with correlation …
wheat growers may no longer worry about drought, with scientists from Egypt's Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (ageri) evolving a drought-resistant variety of the crop. The development will reduce the number of irrigation cycles required per growing season from eight to one. Moreover, the wheat can be cultivated with only …
Activists and farmers opposing patents on Indian agricultural products by the West have achieved rare victory. A patent on Indian wheat, held by multinational corporation Monsanto, has been revoked by the Munich-based European Patent Office (EPO). The EPO's decision is in response to a petition filed by three organisations
yielding to the pressure of wheat farmers of the us and Canada, agri-business giant Monsanto has deferred introducing the world's first genetically modified (gm) wheat. "The company is deferring all further efforts to introduce Roundup Ready wheat, until such time that other wheat biotechnology traits (for example, pesticide tolerance) are …
Satnam Singh detests wheat chapattis. On being force-fed, he shouts and cries loud. Satnam is not throwing tantrums ; he is also not suffering from anorexia. In fact, this four-year old from a small village in Punjab's Ambala district associates wheat chapattis with acute stomach aches, followed by vomiting and …
after the Basmati rice row, a similar controversy has cropped up involving an Indian wheat variety. On February 23, the Supreme Court (sc) directed the Union government to contest the patenting of wheat by us food and seed manufacturer Monsanto. The Munich-based European Patent Office (epo) had granted the patent …
The armyworm has devastated crops in several provinces of Pakistan. Sindh is plagued by the pest, which has damaged 25 per cent of the rice crop and a substantial part of the banana crop. Even as Sindh is expected to face a crop deficit of 100,000 tonnes, the current wheat …
Parthenium, a notorious weed, first sneaked into the country along with wheat grains imported from the us in the early 1950s. It has become a widespread menace ever since. The plant is a rapid coloniser and differs from other weeds in its remarkable adaptability to all kinds of soils and …
a farmer is often worried about the price a season's produce is likely to get. Prime Minister A B Vajpayee called this the "risk of the market' while inaugurating rice and wheat futures trading on the Ahmedabad-based National Multi-Commodity Exchange (nmce) in December 2003. Futures trading of these commodities brings …
In Ladakh, the rest of India is referred to as down . Because, at no point in Leh district would you be less than about three kilometres above the mean sea level. This vast barren district is more than 45,000 square kilometre (sq km); it is perhaps India's largest and …
In Ladakhi, lango khel means conquering the highest point of a pass in the mountains. In Ladakhi schools, it means the matriculation (class X) examination. From 1947 to 1998, matriculation results in Leh district hovered between 0-5 per cent. The reasons are not difficult to fathom. Children grew up speaking …
Life in a cold desert is harsh and exacting. You need enormous amounts of energy for everything, but there are very few sources. Getting electricity to light up houses in Leh is no easy task. About two-thirds of the power supply in the summer comes from diesel generator sets (DG) …
