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 …
Environmental contamination and high production cost could now be eliminated with the discovery of a botanical pesticide using Jatropha curcas (tubang-bakod), say scientists from the Central Development Research Institute> based in Baltac, Ilocos Norte, the Philippines. Pesticide from Jatropha can be easily prepared by farmers themselves. The formulated product is …
Researchers at Nottingham university UK, have identified 35 different kinds of inheritable genes responsible for a frnit's colour, taste and ripeness through hormonal control. Experts will soon be able to produce a fruit with two to three different colours by reconstructing the inherited genes. Thereafter, people will be able to …
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 …
A high value mulberry leaf can be used as animal feed for tastier, thicker milk and increased egg production. The leaves left after rearing silkworms are used as animal feed. This feed considerably increases both fur and body weight in rabbits. It also accumulates more fat and less water in …
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 , …
milking machines can now have a system to detect whether a cow has developed mastitis (inflammation of udders) or not. The system can detect early signs of mastitis much before the painful inflammation develops, by monitoring the electrical conductivity of milk as it passes the milking machine. The infected cells …
farming in Nepal expectedly is a tough job with hilly terrains all around where irrigation is extremely difficult. The bleak economic scenario, too, adds to the disadvantages and the use of external inputs such as chemical fertilisers is minimal. Cultivation of crops almost entirely depends on locally available nutrients from …
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 …
The World Bank has sponsored an international project aimed at developing disease-free bananas involving researchers from Australia, the US and Belgium. James Dale of Queensland University of Technology heads the operation in Australia. His research ear-lier had led to the discovery of banana bunchy top, a major destructive virus in …
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 …
In wheat kernels, there are more than hundred different types of storage proteins, which are of great importance to the baking quality of the dough. There are mainly two groups of proteins in wheat, namely glutenins and gliadins. P Johannson at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden, has done an …
OF LATE, Bacillus thuriengiensis, a soil bacterium, has become a microbiologist's hot property, owing to its ability to make a protein toxin (13t) which selectively kills an insect consuming this protein. The sensitivity of these insects which include mosquitoes, beetles, butterfly- larvae and aphids, depends upon the genotypes of the …
The European table and wine grape Vitis vinifera contains high levels of tannins and phenols, which interfere with cell culture. These compounds oxidise quickly and promote the decay of grape cells. A group of scientists in Israel have shown that the addition of anti-oxidants like polyvinylpolypyrolidone and dithiothrietol, helps overcome …
Now crops can be dried even during the night with the help of a solar dryer that can store heat in a special rock bed unit. The solar dryer consists of a solar collector, a rock bed heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a chimney. Part of the heat …
WEEDS and soil-borne pathogens pose a major threat to crops. Soil solarisation offers a cost-effective and non-chemical method of checking their growth. It is achieved by covering (mulching, tarping) the soil with transparent polyethylene during the hot season, thereby heating it and killing the pests. Soil solarisation is a recently …
DAIRY farmers in developing countries invariably face a major problem because if the fresh milk from a healthy cow is not cooled and does not reach the processor within five hours after milking, it is rendered unsuitable for processing. This results in loss of time, labour and valuable nutrition. But …
Genetic engineers at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, have developed a new variety of cotton which is capable of destroying its insect pests. A gene from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thurengensis - which is a naturally occuring insecticide -is incorporated into the cotton varieties. The gene encodes a …
A DELICATE plant, producing yellow flowers -Calceolaria andina is proving to be the nemesis for a notoriously high-resistant variety of tobacco whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. Two chemicals from the plant, which grows high on the Andean slopes, has been found to be fatal for the B- biotype species of the pest. …
AT LONG last, seed specialists have come up with a hybrid variety of wheat, an idea that has been in the offing for several decades. What acted as a deterrent was the floral biology and genetic structure of the plant. Clearing all obstacles, however, the Lafarge-Coppe group and Hybrinova, its …
SCIENTISTS are calling attention to a grave threat that faces plant breeding - the declining number of pollinators like insects, bees, moths, bats, flies and birds. These organisms do a world of good to most plants in land-based eco- systems, by helping ,them reproduce by means of pollination. And when …
