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 …
HONDURAN scientists have come up with an ecologically friendly banana and named it Goldfinger. They maintain their banana is hardier than the more common varieties and immune to black sigatoka, one of the two major fungal diseases that attack banana crops. "It (Goldfinger) could just be the saviour of our …
ANY DAY NOW, we'll have the perfect potato -- not too waxy or floury, not mottled with bluish grey stains or with a scaly skin. When it does make its debut, it will be thanks to a little genetic engineering. Assures botanist Michael Wilkinson of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, …
DID AKBAR, the great Moghul (1556-1605), relish dam aalu? Probably not, especially as one doesn't have firm evidence he did. The record kept by his minister, Abul Fazl, of crops grown in India in Akbar's time doesn't mention the potato (called aalu, in Hindi). India produces about 16 million tonnes …
In Andhra Pradesh dip their hands in fresh milk while transplanting seedlings.They know - but until now, not why - that this traditional practice prevents the spread of tobacco mosaic virus. Researchers at the Centre for Cellular and Mollecular Biology in Hydrabad say their studies indicate that an enzyme in …
AMRITBHAI Agrawat, a blacksmith from Pikhor village in Gujarat, stared fascinatedly at a barber shaving a customer. Intrigued by the barber's twin-blade razor, Agrawat's agile mind started a process that ended months later in his fashioning a new tool for harvesting groundnuts. An inveterate inventor, with a tally of more …
SEVEN years ago Haribhai Patel of Alindri village in Gujarat's Junagadh district stopped using pesticides and chemical fertilisers in his fields because he noticed birds that ate pests killed by the chemicals, died in turn. He began experimenting with organic farming and after a lengthy process of trial and error, …
RESOURCEFUL villagers in Badi, about 40 km from Jodhpur, resorted to a traditional Indian water-harvesting technique to overcome extreme water shortage. They constructed a small embankment (khadin) to collect rainwater. Building a khadin begins with locating a natural depression. The depression acts like a basin into which rainwater channels run. …
WHEN THE farm animals of the Raika tribals, a sect of the Bishnois in Khejadli village, some 30 km from Jodhpur, are struck by certain diseases, they quarantine the infected animal but slice off slivers of flesh from its ear and insert them into the ears of the remaining herd. …
THE UNAVAILABILITY of green fodder in hill areas in the dry season is a major problem for residents. But botanists A B Bhatt and Neelam Rawat of the H N Bahuguna Garhwal University have conducted a study on the fodder quality of some shrubs and developed a model to ensure …
Though kesari dal (Lathyrus sativus) is a deadly food that can paralyse and kill thousands, it has been rendered safe by a research team from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Team members used tissue culture techniques to develop a new, low-toxin dal, which is on trials in a …
It's a scam with a difference. Khem Singh Gill, vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and a noted wheat-breeder himself, is the target of allegations that PBW 34, a wheat variety he claims to have developed, may actually be India's first instance of gene theft. R K Batra, president …
NEARLY half the world's population depends on rice for food. Yet, it was only i.n the early :980~ thaHhe crop was Included in biotechnology research to enhance yield and quality. Since then, however, while the research has thrown up break-throughs, problems have cropped up that could hinder the development of …
TAKE A small part of a shoot tip and put it in a test tube. Then add some chemicals that will nurture the tissue and lo and behold, the part grows into a full plant. This may sound like witchcraft, but it is precisely what tissue culture technology is all …
THE International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is located very picturesquely amidst emerald green paddy fields against a backdrop of hills in Los Banos, Philippines. The institute has generated many controversies and has even been accused of stealing germplasm from rice-growing countries. Hybrid rice varieties developed at IRRI in the 1960s …
GUAYULE is an arid-zone crop that is one of only two species yielding rubber in quantities substantial enough for commercial use. Unlike the rubber tree, guayule can be cultivated in marginal lands and provide income to desert dwellers. The whole plant, except the leaves, produces rubber. Scientists at Haryana Agricultural …
STAR MOSS, a primitive organism without roots or a vascular system that is common in the forests of North America, contains genes that could be used to engineer drought resistance in crops. Molecular biologist Mel Oliver of the US Department of Agriculture's Plant Stress and Water Conservation Lab in Texas …
IN THE flood-prone areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa -- where many believe rice originated -- yields are only about one-fifth that of Punjab and Haryana because the rice spends most of its energy literally trying to keep its head above water and has only a …
ANJANI KHANNA HYDERABAD & S GOPIKRISHNA WARRIER MADRAS INDUSTRIAL giants across India are taking a keen interest in neem. ITC, a major cigarette manufacturer, has found that neem extracts are extremely effective against the dreaded tobacco mosaic virus and the tobacco caterpillar moth (Spodoptera litura) which can extensively damage tobacco …
Pesticides 1. Wellgro, produced by India Tobacco Company, reportedly repels tobacco caterpillar, prevents the spread of tobacco mosaic virus and prevents nitrogen leaching. 2. Neemguard, marketed by Gharda Chemicals, Bombay. Recommended by the company for use on cotton, groundnut, pulses, rice, vegetables, fruit trees and plantation crops. 3. Neemark, marketed …
