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, …
ON A cool, February morning, the mist hangs low over the harvested rice fields of Chinglepet district in Tamil Nadu. A peculiar, gurgling sound emanates from the haze, arousing your curiosity. The noise gradually gets louder - and suddenly, around a thousand quacking ducks emerge from the mist with their …
I AM not a botanist and being a Bengali with a particular inclination for non-vegetarian food, I almost shared the sentiment, "Grasses are meant for cows." But reading Grass Evolution and Domestication has been an interesting experience. Reading this book, one is made to realise that the "grass family" is …
THE distasteful task of grading beef by inspecting carcasses can now be bypassed. Two researchers at Iowa State University in the US have come up with a far more accurate technique to rate meat. They use ultrasound readings of fat deposits on live animals to offer gourmets "select", "choice", or …
The good old barter system is back. To meet the demand for duck meat, India will soon import Vietnamese ducks in exchange for Indian buffaloes. According to the animal husbandry department secretary, J P Singh, it was found that Indian buffaloes were in demand in Vietnam while duck meat is …
HUSKIES will soon stop hauling sledges in the freezing reaches of Antarctica. In accordance with the Antarctic Treaty Environmental Protocol, sled dogs will be banned from the South Pole from April 1, 1994. They are being retired because they are spreading canine infection to seals, say environmentalists. The animals were …
In fifty developing countries, which contain half of the total human population of the world, there is a heavy dependence on draught animals as an energy source. These animals are used for agriculture operations in 52% of cultivated areas of the world, as well as for hauling 25 million carts. …
PASTORALISTS are a vanishing breed the world over. These herders of sheep and cattle have a key role to play in the rehabilitation and sustainable management of fragile ecosystems. India has 34 million pastoralists managing a livestock population of more than 50 million. Apart from producing milk, meat, leather and …
IN MANY agricultural ecosystems, manure is used to provide the nutrients and organic matter needed for soil fertility on cropland. Even where chemical fertilisers are available, organic matter such as that provided by manure is the key to sustainable cropping. Farmers and pastoralists often develop relationships centred around each other's …
JAPANESE scientists have turned raw sewage into a a protein-rich creation that resembles beef in texture and hope to make it also taste and smell like beef. Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a member of the team, said: "We wanted to show that what comes out of the body can be recycled to …
SMALL is beautiful. Notwithstanding the anti-whale tone of the comment, the remark holds true for this book. Whaling Issues and Japan's Whale Research should ideally be called a booklet on a big animal. The book makes you realise the present whaling controversy is more complex than newspaper reports would have …
Something not commonly known even to the Dutch is that their country contains five time more pigs than people. The amount of pig and cow waste in the country's small land area is a major threat to surface-water quality, because the waste contains nitrates that cause acidification. A national standard …
The Netherlands has three levels of governance -- national, provincial (12 provinces) and municipal (650 municipalities). The national government determines environmental policy and the ministry of environment sets objectives and guidelines for provincial and municipal authorities who draw up their own environmental plans. These are reviewed every two or three …
EVEN AS the midwestern states in USA are awash with flood waters, farmers in the southeast are contending with a severe drought and face agricultural losses that have already hit $800 million in the Carolinas and Georgia. US department of agriculture authorities say the worst-hit crops in the tri-state area, …
WITH ITS long, angular body, supple spine and cleat-like claws, the cheetah can chase down a car, speeding at over 115 km an hour. But its specialised aerodynamics are also precipitating its extinction. Take, for example, Namibia, which has the world's largest cheetah population, but where the species has declined …
JAPANESE cows now have their personal paging systems... call, and they come -- more eagerly if its piano music that has distinct and individual notes. With cowherds becoming unaffordable in Japan, researchers considered the feasibility of an individual musical call that would be transmitted to the cow via tiny pagers …
The UN sponsored discussions to prepare a global convention on climate began in February in USA. The aim is to prepare a legally binding convention to curb gaseous emissions leading to a much feared climate destabilisation. This convention is being seen as the world's greatest commitment to the environment and …
Using data from villages in three districts of Western Rajasthan, this paper describes the decline in area and deterioration in quality of common property resources over three decades. The decline of common property resources is associated with institutional changes in the villages. The introduction of land reforms in the early …
The City University of New York, Colorado State University, The Small Earth Nepal, and Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and Department of Livestock Services/Government of Nepal are holding the International Conference on Climate Change Innovation and Resilience for Sustainable Livelihood during 12-14 January 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The three-day event …
The International conference on Climate Change Innovation and Resilience for Sustainable Livelihood is going to be held on 12-14 January in Kathmandu, Nepal.The conference will focus on innovative approaches from the physical and social sciences to support economic development in mountain and lowland South Asia, which faces serious climate hazards …
ANTHRA is an organization of women veterinary scientists working primarily on issues of livestock development in the wider context of sustainable natural resource use. It is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration and Public Trust Act of Bombay, 1860.
