As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
the Union government increased the minimum support price of wheat, paddy, sugarcane, mustard, rapeseed and other agricultural commodities on October 9. The announcement was made after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the prime minister, accepted the recommendations on the minimum support price (msp) by the Commission of …
Agriculture in India is subject to variety of risks arising from rainfall aberrations, temperature fluctuations, hailstorms, cyclones, floods and climate change. These risks are exacerbated by price fluctuation, weak rural infrastructure, imperfect markets and lack of financial services including limited span and design of risk mitigation instruments such as credit …
In 2002-2004, Karnataka's S.M. Krishna government blamed farmers' suicides on alcoholism and gambling. This time around, the authorities cannot ignore the bitter harvest and its aftermath. In Bidar district alone, 48 farmers have killed themselves since July 2006. All of them were sugarcane cultivators. .News of suicides is trickling in …
Sugarcane is used to make five major types of sweeteners. In the order of refinement, these are sugar, khandsari, shakkar, gur and raskat (a byproduct of the sweetener industry). Gur and khandsari are cottage industry products and do not have to deal with restrictive policies that control the sugar industry. …
Earlier, the common lady finger was used to make gur. Today the main ingredient of the gur making is wild ladyfinger or sukhlai. It provides additional income to farmers. The plant matures in around four months and is cultivated especially for Muzzafarnagar's gur industry
THE temptation to pick up one of the golden clumps of gur (jaggery) seemed overwhelming as we walked around Asia's largest gur market. But Pramod Kumar Jain, our companion, urged restraint. "Do not pick this up. I will get you the real thing,' he said. Jain is a gur dealer …
Allegations of sugarcane workers being worked to death in appalling conditions have diluted Brazil's euphoria over the boom in its sugarcane and ethanol industry. Working over 10 hours, on productivity-based pay, meaning low wages, inadequate food, these workers aren't getting much out of the boom. Safety equipment are not always …
sugarcane farmers in Bilaspur, Durg, Rajnandgaon and Kabirdham districts of Chhattisgarh are angry at the state government for forcing them to sell their produce at throwaway prices to the state's only sugar mill. The mill, located in Kawardha, needs at least three lakh tonnes of cane every year. Since the …
Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh (up), a major sugarcane production centre in the country, is in the grip of severe air pollution, caused by unlicensed sugarcane crushing units. Only nine of 21 mills with a license function leaving the field open to thousands of illicit units. There are almost 400 …
The sugar sector recently faced another setback as a result of a Supreme Court ruling, upholding the right of state governments to determine a sugarcane price that mills are obliged to pay farmers, different from the statutory minimum price (smp), which is fixed by the Centre. Sugar cane farmers constitute …
After 250 research articles, Jim Dumesic, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, usa, would much rather teach a classroom of seniors than promote a start-up company. But such is the commercial potential of his recent work that Dumesic now courts hard-nosed investors and earnest energy …
Alarmed at the recent cane burning, president Alfonso Portillo has announced that he would send inspectors to evaluate environmental damage caused by such fires. Even though the minister did not specify if any action would be taken against the growers who set fire to sugar cane during the harvest to …
The Mexican government is replacing methyl tertiery butyl ether (MTBE), an additive that increases the oxygen content of fuel, with ethanol, which is made from sugarcane. This is because MTBE has been known to contaminate groundwater and has been banned in the US. The government announced this decision after traces …
wide variations of nitrous oxide (n2o) emissions over varying areas and time periods make estimation a tough proposition. A study published in Current Science (Vol 79, No 10) says n2o emissions from soils used for different crops and in different seasons in India can have wide variations. n2o is a …
recycling crop wastes to produce enriched manure, besides improving the fertility of the soil, also facilitates hygienical waste disposal and prevents environmental pollution. Sugarcane trash is a commonly available farm waste in sugarcane growing countries. At present, most of the trash is burnt in fields as an easy way of …
Dumping sugar into the petrol tank may be just the ticket for cleaner air and cheaper fuel. Sugars and starches such as glucose, dextrose and even cellulose in mowed grass and other plant waste would be converted into hydrogen
sugarcane farmers can look forward to the recently developed tractor-drawn sugarcane cutter-planter which has been designed to simplify the cane planting process. Developed at the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research ( iisr ), Lucknow, the two-row, tractor-drawn sugarcane cutter-planter is capable of performing seven operations, involved in cane planting, at …
AGRO-PROCESSING industries playa pivotal role in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. They provide links between agriculture and industry. The present wave of globalisation has had more influence on agriculture in general and agro-processing in particular. Progress in science and technology has resulted in the viable utilisation of by-products from …
THERE is an instances galore of the changing ways of life, aided by market trends and unimaginative policies, driving out of existence many sustainable and wise practices. Most of these developments have-been propelled by the idle pursuit of comfort, and have been singlemindedly wasteful and damaging to the environment. Perhaps …
