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 …
TWO groups of scientists have developed techniques to genetically alter banana (Musa species) cells to make the plant disease- resistant and introduce other improvements in it. This is significant when one considers that in some areas of the world up to half the banana yield is lost to fungal and …
A PLANT long-neglected by scientists is now being acclaimed as the answer to the developing world's protein needs and as a potential money-spinner. Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) contains as much as 28 per cent protein and is generously peppered with vitamins, minerals and fats, making it an excellent complement to …
GENETICALLY engineered potatoes that produce their own insecticide may soon hit supermarkets in the us. The special bug killing spud has been produced by incorporating a gene from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis that-produces a pesticide called Bt, into the potato plant. Incorporating the gene for Bt into a potato …
Scientists at the Cuttack-based Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) have developed a high yielding variety of rice called Lunishree that requires the minimal use of fertilisers, has a high resistance to salinity and a long grain. CRRI director B Venketaswarlu says that Lunishree yields are 28-30 per cent greater than …
Efforts are being made to popularise in India a pulse called rice-bean (Vigna umballata) which has a high nutritive value. The plant is a native of South Asia and its cultivation in India has been confined to the tribal regions of eastern and north-eastern parts of the country. Rice-bean has …
SCIENTISTS at the National Research Centre -- Spices (NRC-S) at Kozhikode in Kerala have developed a cure for the quick-wilt disease, which affects the black pepper crops. The disease, which decays the roots of the pepper vines and kills the plant within weeks, can now be cured by biological methods …
GROWING crops in coastal areas has been a difficult task because of the high salt content of the soil. Now, scientists in USA and Saudi Arabia recommend a plant species called Salicornia that thrives in saline and even semi-arid conditions. The researchers are crossing Salicornia species to develop varieties that …
Noted agro-economist N S Jodha had said in one of his papers that "in the search for innovativeness in drought management, public policies have bypassed an important source of insight -- the coping strategies of farmers". This book is a step forward towards understanding the farmers' knowledge, and the actual …
WORTHY WASTES: Recycling being the latest mantra in environment circles, the Indian Rare Earths factory in Alwaye, Kerala has taken up the chant in its turn. Wastes from the factory, comprising of 'garnet sand', a byproduct of processing Kerala's beach sands to extract thorium, are being converted into synthetic granite …
FLOODED-PRONE regions of Bangladesh, China and North India could benefit from the discovery of a new improved variety of deep water rice. Scientists at the international rice research instutute (IRRI) said at an international conference at Manila that they had been a new rice plant, testing it in water upto …
THIS is a collecton of papers originating from a study of the North Arcot district in the early '80s, undertaken under the auspices of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to assess the impact of technological change in agriculture. With a reliable benchmark survey, adequate funding and an …
HYBRID rapeseed and mustard seeds -- the Holy Grail of agricultural researchers worldwide -- that could substantially increase the yield of these crops, may soon be available to the Indian farmers. Scientists at the Delhi-based Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) claim to have already developed rapeseed hybrid seeds that are …
N B L Prasad and G Azeemoddin at the Hyderabad-based Oil Technological Research Institute have discovered that the seeds of an Australian species of Acacia can be crushed to yield oil while the residue forms a protein-rich meal. The oil obtained from the entire seed of Acacia holosericea can be …
RICE staple diet of a large part of the world, was not entirely benign. Paddy fields, existing predominantly in tropical developing countries that account for about 90 per cent of globsl rice production, have been blamed for producing vast quantities of global-warming methane. But now, the former director of the …
How can agricultural biotechnology help meet the world's food needs in the coming century? Till about 1984, beginning with the Green Revolution in the late '60s, the rate of increase in food production was about 3 per cent annually, compared to the population growth, which was a little over 2 …
Molecular biologists at the University of Florida have succeeded in inoculating rye, an important European crop, against the herbicide Basta by injecting into it 2 foreign genes (Biotechnology, Vol 12, No 13). Till now, all improvements in the rye crop had been through classical breeding methods. In fact, rye has …
THE scientists at the School of Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, are a happy lot these days. And with good reason: India's first rice hybrid, MGR1, released by them after 15 years of research, has met with an enthusiastic response from farmers. The hybrid, named after former Tamil …
An Indian scientist has produced a rice hybrid tolerant to saline conditions using a tissue culture-based method known as the "embryo rescue technique" (Current Science, Vol 67, Nos 9 and 10). K K Jena of Osmania University, Hyderabad, crossed high-yielding varieties of rice -- which are extremely sensitive to saline …
WHEN applying fertilisers to crops, it is not so much the quantity as the timing that decides how good the yield will be, concludes a team of biochemists at the nuclear research laboratory of the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Led by Sukumar R Chatterjee, the team traced the …
AS SOON as the civil war in Rwanda comes to an end, the United Nations plans to plant 40,000 ha there with potatoes to compensate for the loss of potato tubers -- the underground part of the plant that is traditionally used as planting material -- which have been consumed …
