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A jab on the poor
"Vaccine Eloquent" (Down To Earth, January 31, 2006)
Omesh Bharti
bhartiomesh@yahoo.com
Expose the sham
"Recall rights" (Down To Earth, January 31, 2006)
gram sabha
ceo
zilla parishad
dc
dc
zilla parishad
ceo
dc
G R Vora
Plot - 275/3, Gope Nivas, Sion E,
Mumbai-22.
Eco-sanitation: let's get going
Ray Wijewardene
raywijewardene@yahoo.com
Keep up the good work
Down to Earth
Adivasi
adivasi
Kaushik Ghosh
cayocan@mail.utexas.edu
Make India forage secure
"The 'other' food crisis" (Down To Earth, December 15, 2005).
S K Shah
The Fertiliser Association of India
sarveshshah@gmail.com
Please look at other systems
"Grey water hits the roof" (January 15, 2006).
sbt
sbt,
sbt
sbt

S Lakshmanan

iyer_lakshmanan@yahoo.co.in
Come on Tata
("Not bowed down" dte January 31, 2006).
David Gandhi

Bhubaneshwar / Pune
Look at Bhatinda
"No concrete plans" (Down To Earth, December 31, 2005).
shaminder s dhillon
House no 22676

Street No 6

Bhagu Road, Bhatinda 151001
Errata
"The purification hunt" (Down To Earth, January 31, 2006)
cd
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Pick of the Postbag

This is not what research should be
While farmers are looking for saner methods of rice cultivation without waterlogging, the recent findings at Hyderabad based International Crop Research Institute and Nagpur based National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Pattern come as a shock (see "Reaping Double Benefit" Down To Earth 31 January, 2006). It might be justifiable if the research results of these institutes are floodplain specific . But they cannot be justified in semi-arid areas, especially in view of the current situation of water scarcity and greenhouse gas emissions in India.

History seems to be repeating itself as plant nutrients are reduced to mere carbon and nitrogen. In the 19 th century, Von Justus Leibig, the father of the hegemonic Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Pottasium (npk) fertilisation theory, confessed before the Royal Scientific Society, uk that he had sinned against creation by undermining the role of micronutrients and the naturally occurring mineralogical cycle. Let us not wait for K L Sahrawat of icrisat to make a similar post-facto confession.

Carbon and nitrogen are not the only nutrients that determine the healthy growth of plants. Is there a need to generate these macronutrients at the cost of pristine waters? Are these research findings justifiable when the aerobic rice cultivation (sri paddy) method is just starting to gain momentum? Both companion planting of rice (nitrogen craving) and pulses (nitrogen producing) and aerobic methods have proved efficient in increased yield and pathogen resistance with 60 per cent water saving and reduction of green house gas emission. Why only nitrogen and carbon? Soil fertility, micronutrient balance and soil biological conservation is well maintained in both companion planting and aerobic cultivation; these are the very facts that appear to have been excluded by these research institutes.

As nearly 2,500 hectares of waterlogged rice cultivated area is laid to waste in Karnataka every year, the questions raised by G Narayanswamy of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, on the significance of these research findings need to be acknowledged.

L C Nagaraj
lcnagaraj@yahoo.com...

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