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 …
BIOTECHNOLOGY has been occasionally caught giving itself a pat on the back and parrying questions of ethics by flaunting its effects on crop production, rice included. The information contained in this book is a first-hand account of the various directions in which rice biotechnology has grown, an overview of the …
YEARS of government protection and a ban on imports had so far insulated Japanese rice farmers from foreign competition. Now, however, they face double trouble -- emergency imports of foreign rice by the Japanese government to tide over a shortfall in production. The imports coincide with a decision to allow …
SCIENTISTS at the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have developed a rice plant that can yield 25 per cent more than existing varieties. The new variety, evolved by combining various samples of germplasm, is being tested and the crop is to be harvested in May. IRRI chief plant breeder …
THE VILLAGERS of Gawandwadi in Maharashtra's Raigad district no longer fight over fish and water. Instead, they meet regularly to discuss strategies to share them. And, Dharmi Marohar Gavanda of the village, which is in Karjat tribal block, does not have to walk 3 km in the hot summer to …
A GROUP of 20 scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune has developed biotechnological tools to study the genetic diversity of rice. Says team leader P K Ranjekar, "We are interested in studying crops of special relevance to India, and so chose to work primarily on rice." In …
In a significant breakthrough, the Hyderabad-based Directorate of Rice Research has developed five commercially viable, hybrid rice varieties from indigenous species. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) director-general V L Chopra claims this will make India "the second country, after China, to exploit hybrid vigour in order to give a …
FISH CURRY and Rice is the catchy title of the latest in the genre of citizens' reports on the state of the environment, but it tells you little about what the book contains. It "does attempt to tell of the Goan recipe for life. And why we should join and …
While the cultivation of paddy in Punjab (and Haryana) does need some curbing, the extreme forebodings of either total groundwater exhaustion in Punjab or of the state turning into a desert of paddy growing is not curbed forthwith are unwarranted.
FACED with the daunting task of making Australia's meat-and-potatoes consumers switch to meat-and-rice, growers are hoping to exploit the recent royal wedding in Japan. They have launched an advertising campaign urging Australian couples to adopt some of Japan's rice-related wedding rituals, especially the placing of white rice cakes in the …
SCIENTISTS are making headway in using genetic engineering techniques to develop commercial varieties of rice strains that are resistant to diseases. Initial trials by researchers in China and Japan of rice strains modified to fight the red stripe virus, which in southeast Asia has been known to destroy entire harvests, …
A RICE shortage is imminent by the turn of the century because of paucity of funds and a declining interest in projects to improve yields, says Gurdev Khush of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. Recession-hit Western donors are considering cutting aid to IRRI and passing on …
THE SUB-TITLE of the book: Research Strategies and IRRI's Technologies Confront Asian Diversity (1950-1980) says what the book is all about. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), set up near Manila in 1960, was conceived and financed by the Rockefeller and Ford foundations. This book is about IRRI's planning and …
The Kerala government decided constructing the Ambalur-Keecheri dam in Ernakulam district would remedy the decline in paddy production. Instead, the dam has accelerated damage to the crop. The dam was intended to prevent inflow of saline water from Vembanad lake, which was supposedly lowering crop yields. But agricultural experts now …
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 …
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 …
RICE AS grown in India is a water-guzzler, because farmers use on an average 15,000 litres to produce one kg of paddy, though water technologists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi say no more than 600 litres is needed if proper water management techniques are followed. Given …
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 …
IN A PROGRAMME conducted by the Academy for Development of Science in Karjat in Maharashtra, farmers all over the country collected some 365 local varieties of rice in as many days. As many as 325 of these were not documented in the 60,000-long official list of the rice plant (Oryza …
THOUGH a great deal of fuss has been raised in scientific circles over methane production by rice paddies and cattle in the developing world, which is likely to heat up the earth, the atmospheric chemistry of methane is still a grey area. Scientists-are finding that it is quite possible that …
