.jpg)
MOST POPULAR
- Man-made reasons for Uttarakhand disaster 1
- Pedestrian questions 14
- Dhari Devi idol goes missing 2
- Transition failure 1
- Rains over past three days extreme weather event: scientists 1
- Where all did extreme events cause disasters last decade
- Monsoon arrives early; kills over 30 people in Uttarakhand
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- The unseen invader
- Sikkim at risk of devastating floods from glacial lake outbursts 1
FOLLOW US ON
Wheat
Man who authored green revolution dies at 95
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2009
Nobel laureate gave the world the high-yield dwarf wheat plant
Norman E Borlaug, the agriculture scientist whose seminal contribution saved large parts of the world from hunger deaths, died of cancer at his
home in Dallas, USA, on September 12, 2009. He was 95. He was working in the Texas A&M University almost till the end. He received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for combating world hunger.
Diminishing returns
Issue Date: Sep 15, 2009
Wilted crops dot the countryside; farmers cry for water, electricity
"August is the time when we have at least 3.5 feet (one metre) tall bajra, but this year the land looks as barren as nothing has ever been sown here," said Mewa Singh. "It drizzled just once in July. I have never seen this in 50 years of my life."
What went wrong in 1995
Issue Date: Sep 15, 2009
Arabian Sea cyclones increasing in number, intensity
the Arabian Sea, which has warmed by 0.5o C over the past nine decades, is experiencing a shift in its climate. So much so that intense cyclones with wind speed of more than 100 km per hour have become frequent, said a team of marine scientists led by the National Institute of Oceanography (nio), Goa.
News for farmers
Issue Date: Aug 31, 2009
Plant growth promoters are naturally produced molecules that increase crop yield. Developing them for commercial use is difficult. The Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) received a US patent in May, this year, for developing a promoter, isolated from a medicinal plant. Anil Kumar Singh, Deputy Director of the chemistry division, spoke to Savvy Soumya Misra
An ongoing project
Free the polyphenols
Issue Date: May 31, 2009
Locked in wheat, once released they protect from diseases
wheat is more nutritious than was previously known. But this nutrition--polyphenols--is bound to carbohydrate
molecules and cannot be accessed by the body when consumed. Fermenting the wheat is the key to the release of these phenols that act as
scavengers of harmful chemicals and keep coronary diseases, cancer and diabetes at bay. A research team used two species of filamentous
Wheat rusts no more
Issue Date: Mar 31, 2009
Location of a gene active against rust diseases pinpointed
Farming made unprofitable
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2008
Poor support prices and costly agri inputs make a bad equation for farmers, Savvy Soumya Misra finds out
Virus scare
Issue Date: Sep 15, 2008
Lethal viruses are taking over the world of food
IN agricultural research, new breakthroughs have helped elaborate the workings of two strains of potentially lethal viruses destroying important food crops like wheat and maize.
