CAPART up for overhaul

IT IS a government agency that was set up specially to fund non-profits working on rural development. But of late the Council for People’s Action and Advancement of Rural Technology (CAPART) has been plagued by allegations of corruption and inefficiency. After a few failed attempts to reform CAPART, the government has now decided to overhaul the agency which has close to 12,000 NGOs associated with it.

Amulya K N Reddy: A socially responsible maverick

In an autobiographical piece, Professor Amulya K N Reddy described himself as a "socially responsible scientist" and a "maverick". This self-description fitted him to the cue. Prof, as he was known to those who worked closely with him at the Indian Institute of Science (iis c ), Bangalore, and the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, passed away on May 7, 2006 after a protracted struggle with chronic kidney failure.

Reeds to the rescue

Better biogas plants

Feather innovation

it could be a feather in the cap of us scientists. New research on the byproduct of the poultry industry -- feathers -- is turning the fluff into products ranging from paper to high-quality animal feed.

Showing the way

with electricity out of reach for many rural areas in Kenya, the uk -based Intermediate Technology Development Group ( itdg ), has developed 'a low cost alternative to a Solar Home System'. In Kenya around 1.5 million households have tried using solar panels, but poor designs and short life batteries have led to many abandoning the systems. Currently 96 per cent of Kenyan householders use kerosene for lighting and 70 per cent supplement this light source with battery-operated torches.

Extremely light!

The villages of Thulo Pokhara and Raje Danda of Nepal's Kavrepalanchok district have become the "world's first villages to be entirely lit by White Light Emitting Diode (WLED) lightning system". This has been possible by the efforts of Irvine-Halliday of Calgary University, Alberta, Canada. Irvine-Halliday was fascinated by the natural beauty of the Himalaya, but saddened by the poverty of the hill people. "There were schools, but without lights," he says. Then he stumbled upon Nichia Corporation of Japan, who develop WLED. WLED provide cheap, energy-efficient lightning, he adds.

Home remedy

In rural India, malaria continues to claim the lives of thousands of people. Vector control using DDT (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) has been known to lead to several environmental ill-effects. Now T Bhuvaneswaramma, a resident of Chennai, claims to have developed a mosquito repellent that contains only natural materials and not any chemicals. The leaves of the plant Vitex negundo (commonly known as sambhalu ) are dried and powdered. About 100 grammes of broken rice and one litre of water is cooked and left to cool. This solution is mixed with the powdered leaves.

Turmeric harvester

The Department of Farm Machinery, College of Agricultural Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore has developed a power tiller turmeric harvester. The harvester consists of a crescent-shaped blade with three bar-points meant to penetrate the soil. Two oscillating sectors at the rear of the blade have 50 cm long lift rods at a distance of 5 cm hinged at both ends. The oscillations of the slats is provided by eccentrics on either sides of the unit which are connected to the main shaft at the top of the unit. The operation is simple.

Best for mushrooms

For the cultivation of the popular button mushrooms, many different types of composts have been used. However, experiments with six types in a completely randomised design at the Horticultural Research Station, Ooty during 1997-1998 have come up with surprising results. The different composts were prepared using the following base materials: i) Paddy straw, ii) Wheat straw, iii) Sugarcane trash, iv) Wheat straw plus sugarcane trash (3:1 w/w), v) Paddy straw plus sugarcane trash, and f) Paddy straw plus wheat straw.