Paddy harvest suffers in Upper Kuttanad

PATHANAMTHITTA: Paddy harvest in the Upper Kuttanad villages of Thiruvalla taluk is being hampered by summer rain and shortage of mechanised harvesters.

The district administration had directed Agriculture Department officials to procure more harvesters from Tamil Nadu two days ago. However, the officials reportedly found it difficult to hire the harvesters since most of them were already being used in the State and in Tamil Nadu.
Sam Eapen, Upper Kuttanad Nelkarshaka Samiti (UKNS) president, said three of the 13 harvesters used in the Upper Kuttanad villages of Peringara, Niranom, Kuttoor, Kadapra, and Nedumpram had been damaged.

Waterlogged fields
Also, farmers were unable to use the machines since many fields in the area were waterlogged.
Mr. Eapen added that at least 50 harvesters were needed to harvest the crop in Upper Kuttanad in a time-bound manner.
The shortage of farm workers too is posing problems. Though 9,000 farm workers are registered with the Farm Workers' Welfare Board in Thiruvalla taluk, barely 150 of them are available for harvest, according to Mr. Eapen.
“Many people registered their names with the Board just to avail of benefits sanctioned by the government to farm workers. They do not want to work in the fields. The government should see to it that those registered with the Board are available for harvest,” he said.
According to him, development at the cost of nature has begun to backfire in Kuttanad through untimely rains and waterlogged fields. “It is time to undo the wrongs done to Kuttanad in the name of development,” he added.

‘Increase relief'
Mr. Eapen added that the relief announced by the government (Rs.10,000 a hectare) for farmers who lost crops in untimely rains was grossly inadequate.

Not less than 70 per cent of the crop had been lost and farmers incurred a loss of Rs.48,000 per hectare, Mr. Eapen said.

He called upon the government to increase the relief to Rs.25,000 per hectare, besides providing seeds, fertilizers, and technical assistance to the farmers for the next season.

Source:The Hindu 27-4-2011

CPCRI testing oil palms in Sullia for spear rot disease

Scientists from the Central Plantation Crops and Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod, Kerala, have collected leaf samples of some oil palms from the State government's plantation in Sullia taluk to ascertain if they are susceptible to spear rot disease.

This has come at a time when farmers in the taluk, whose arecanut palms are fast withering owing to yellow leaf disease (YLD), are looking for government's support to grow oil palm.

Director of CPCRI George V. Thomas told The Hindu that the samples were collected from the plantation near Goonadkka in Sullia taluk a week ago on a request by the State Horticulture Department to analyse if they had phytoplasma that caused spear rot disease in oil palms.

An agriculture graduate and farmer K. Vasanth Rao of Todikana village, who has been pursuing the cause of farmers with the State government for the past two years, said about 1,000 palms at the government's plantation planted in 1968 appeared disease free. He said that the survival of these palms for more than 40 years showed that oil palm could be cultivated in the taluk. The palms survived without any maintenance. Nobody watered them in summer. The palms looked healthy and robust when this correspondent visited the plantation in Sullia taluk. Mr. Rao said that the Centre in its budget for 2011-12 allocated Rs. 300 crore to promote oil palm cultivation on 60,000 hectares of land in the country. It had announced plans to produce 3 lakh tonnes of palm oil annually for five years. Mr. Rao said that an information booklet on oil palm cultivation published by the office of the Additional Director of Horticulture (Oil Palm Division), Lalbagh, Bangalore, stated that oil could be tapped within three years of planting. An oil palm would give yield up to 30 years. Fruit yield was 15 to 30 tonnes per hectare per annum according to an official estimation.

Those preferring rubber as an alternative crop would have to wait for seven years to tap rubber and had to cope with acute shortage of tappers, he said.

Mr. Rao said another advantage with oil palm cultivation was that oil manufacturing companies procured harvested fruit from the plantations directly. Hence, growers need not worry about post-harvest management.

Tissue culture
Mr. Thomas said that CPCRI had planted some areca saplings raised through tissue-culture in three villages of Sullia taluk to ascertain if they could withstand the yellow leaf disease. Its results would be known only after a few years. These saplings had been raised using the inflorescence from disease-free areca palms in the yellow leaf disease endemic area of the taluk, he added.

Sixty such saplings were planted at Nadubetta, Goonadkka and Balambi villages in 2009 and 2010, according to another scientist from CPCRI.

Source: The Hindu, 7th April 2011)

Cloned seeds show promise for crop breeding

HYDERABAD: Seeds have been cloned for the first time, a move which could speed up crop breeding and one day allow farmers to produce their own high-yielding seed.

Most crop varieties are hybrids with a mixture of characteristics from genetically distinct parents. But their useful traits are not passed on to their seeds because sexual reproduction, which involves two parents, shuffles genes.
Now an international team of scientists has forced plants to produce seeds that are identical to themselves genetically (i.e. cloned), rather than containing a mix of genes from themselves and another parent.

The seeds have thus retained all the useful traits of their parent.
Imran Siddiqi, researcher at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India, and one of the authors of the paper, published in Science last month(18 February), called this a "proof of principle" of what has long been only a theory.

The key to what they have done lies in the fact that some plants naturally reproduce asexually, by 'apomixis', where the offspring are identical to the parent. They have managed to make a plant that usually makes seeds sexually do so by this method instead.
Siddiqi said the process involved manipulating 2–4 genes that retain parental genetic material in a seed.
He told SciDev.Net that the process would make it possible to 'fix' desirable traits in crops without going through the several generations of cross breeding that are normally required.
"This is a real boost to the field of plant genomics as a whole," said Siddiqi. "But application is still a long way off."
The method creates clones in around a third of offspring in the model plant species Arabidopsis.
Commercial use would require at least 85–90 per cent of seeds to be successfully cloned, he said.
The publication has generated interest among plant scientists in India but they recognise that this is the first step on a long road.

P. B. Kirti, professor of plant sciences at the University of Hyderabad, told SciDev.Net that demonstrating that the method works for important crops would be a "huge challenge" and reaching field trials would take years of work and considerable financing.

"Getting good genetic material to work on and take this proof of concept further also poses its own challenges, particularly to scientists in developing countries," he added.

Siddiqi agreed: "To take this forward would certainly require a more concerted effort — a greater level of funding, a policy-level commitment and wider collaboration."

He said provisional patents have been filed for the process. "If and when application becomes a reality, the technology should remain accessible to public institutions."

Source:www.scidev.net,4-3- 2011

Rain, pest blight vegetable cultivation

KOCHI: Farmers in Ernakulam district's vegetable and banana growing areas are staring at the prospects of losing more than 40 per cent of their crop to rampant pest attacks and unseasonal rain.

An initial assessment by a quasi-governmental body shows that only around 10,000 tonnes of vegetables and bananas are likely to reach the market in the coming months up to April from the standing crop in an area of around 1,800 hectares.

Without the unseasonal rain and pest attacks the harvest would have been up to 27,000 tonnes, said the survey.

Around 900 hectares that came under new crops face the same fate as the standing crop area because of the rain and pest attacks.

In the Piravom area around 350 hectares are under vegetable and banana cultivation and only around 2,100 tonnes of produce are expected to reach the market against an originally expected production of 5,250 tonnes.

Survey report

The survey reported farmers blaming uncontrolled filling of paddy fields and low-lying areas for the water logging that hit several hundreds of hectares under banana and vegetable cultivation.

Heavy rain resulted in water logging, which triggered bacterial attacks in vegetables and banana plants. The new season that started early October was the worst hit, the report pointed out as it said that some of the farmers had to sow seeds three to four times to see the sprouts.

Bacterial disease

Bacterial disease like Rhizome rot in bananas; caterpillars in bitter gourd plantations and fungal attacks like Anthrocnose in cowpea were the major villains that the farmers faced. Their efforts to combat the diseases failed as continuing rain reduced the efficacy of pesticides.

Hundreds of hectares in the Kakkad area fell victim to pest attacks. The area was witness to unprecedented attacks of sucking pests like hoppers, jassids and ephids. Here too pesticides did not work effectively to combat the pests.

The extensive crop loss, pest attacks and soaring price of vegetables may force farmers to increase pesticide use, field scientists in the district have warned.

Source: The Hindu, 19-12-2010

India takes steps to protect wheat from global warming

NEW DELHI: Although no major impact has been observed on wheat production due to global warming in India in the recent past, the government has taken preventive steps to safeguard the principal crop from rising temperature.

Data show there has been increasing trend since 2007-8 in wheat production, which alone contributes over 71 per cent of total foodgrain production of the country.

Wheat production increased from 78.51 million tonnes in 2007-8 to 80.71 million tonnes in 2009-10 (as per 4th advance estimates,2010), Minister of State for Agriculture K V Thomas had said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Studies have forecast adverse affect of global warming on wheat and other crops.

Research findings of ICAR ( Indian Council for Agricultural Research) on wheat crop has indicated that there is about 3 to 4 per cent decrease in grain yield with 1 degree celsius rise in temperature during grain filling stage.

Out of 28 million hectare area under wheat in India, about 9 million hectare in North Eastern plain zone, Central zone and penisular zone is prone to terminal heat stress.

Studies have revealed that the mean annual surface air temperature over India has risen by 0.56 degree celsius during 1901-2009, which is above normal since 1990 over a base period of 1961-1990.

Although no adverse affect of global warming has been noticed on wheat in India so far, the government has taken some timely precautionary steps.

Heat tolerant varieties like DBW 14, DBW 16, Raj 3765, Lok 1, GW 322 etc. have been popularised on larger scale under schemes like National Food Security Mission-wheat and Integrated Cereals Development Programme in Wheat.

This is based on cropping systems aimed at increasing production and productivity of wheat, Thomas had said.

In addition to this, crop advisories are issued to wheat growing farmers for adopting latest crop production/ protection technologies.

Advisories are also issued for timely sowing, resource conservation technology including zero seed drill and irrigation at critical stages to mitigate the sudden rise in temperature.

Besides, ICAR has also initiated networking projects for developing thermal and drought tolerant genotypes that are suitable for changing climatic scenario.

Source: Times of India , 5-12-2010

Paddy seeds cocooned in tribal ark

KALPETTA: Tribal families at Cherukara, near Vellamunda, in Wayanad district have been conserving and propagating indigenous paddy seeds, which they consider a gift of divine providence. In the process, they have set a model for farming communities across the country.

The Peruvadi Kurichiya Tharavadu, one such joint family, is a treasure trove of indigenous paddy seeds, with a rare collection of 29 varieties. Other farmers can get the seeds for cultivation in a kind of a barter arrangement — for every “pothi” (approximately 60 litres), the buyer should return 70 litres post-harvest.

The family has been following a traditional method, called “Moodkettal,” to preserve the seeds.

“A few generations ago, our ancestors used to cultivate more than 150 varieties of paddy seeds, but most of them had been lost in the tide of time,” Achappan, chief of the family, says. “Hence, we have set up a gene bank of traditional paddy seeds to preserve the remaining seeds for our future generations with the technical advice of Voice.”

Voice is a non-governmental organisation based in Sultan Bathery. Under its initiative, a booklet has been published on traditional rice cultivation.

Mr. Achappan says the tribes believe that paddy seeds have a divine property and preserving and propagating them are obligations to the future generations.

In the collection are seeds of Gandhakasala, Kayama and Jeerakasala aromatic varieties; Thonnuramthondy and Palthondy, which can be harvested fast; Navara and Chennellu medicinal varieties; and drought-resistant Chenthadi and Chenthondi.

“Nowadays, many farmers in the district have been showing interest in traditional rice cultivation, as various afflictions affect hybrid varieties. We are providing them seeds from our gene bank,” Mr. Achappan said.

For the tribes, every stage of paddy cultivation is a divine activity and ritual. Sowing, transplanting and harvest are all celebrated with religious fervour. Following an organic method of cultivation, the tribal farmers abjure chemical fertilizers and harmful pesticides.

“As we follow the organic method, the yield may be a little less than that given by high-yielding varieties. But we can ensure the authenticity of the seeds. We are satisfied with the yield as paddy cultivation is not a business for us,” Mr. Achappan says.

Source: The Hindu, 28-11-2010

‘Grand naine' gaining popularity

KOLLAM: Banana farmers in the district have started showing much interest in the cultivation of the ‘Grand naine' variety following its popularity as a delicious fruit.

The high-yielding Grand naine variety was introduced to India from Israel seven years ago. But the farmers were reluctant to promote it as they were wary of its acceptance by the consumers. As time passed, they saw the variety as a successful commercial crop.

The demand for the Grand naine bananas is steadily growing in the markets and the farmers are gearing up to meet it, said V. Ajikumar, superintendent of the district panchayat's Kottukkal Farm.

Grand naine in French means “large dwarf” and true to its name, this variety is not very tall but produces bunches that is almost three-fourths its size with each having more than 200 fruits.

Grand naine banana bunches while on the plant closely resembles the Robusta bananas in size and colour. But when they ripen they turn yellow.

Long shelf life

Mr. Ajikumar said the Grand naine bananas have a shelf life which is much longer than the Robusta. While the latter tend to drop from the bunch in two to three days after ripening, the former stay intact on the bunch for more than two weeks after ripening, maintaining their peculiar aroma and taste. It is this quality of the Grand naine which has made them appealing to farmers, markets and consumers.

Mr. Ajikumar said that during the Onam season the bananas fetched Rs.16 a kg for the farmer. With prices of all banana varieties falling now, farmers now sell Grand naines for Rs.10 a kg.

Source: The Hindu, 27-11-2010

Green revolution over, agri yields staring at dead end?

The monsoon bounty this year is expected to put the smiley back on the agriculture output graph. The government has quickly announced a target food grain production of 244.5 million tonnes for 2010-11, 10mt more than the highest till date – 234.47mt achieved in 2008-09. Even in the wake of last year's monsoon failure, wheat production in the rabi cycle breached the 80mt mark for the first time ever.

But are these recent successes signs of a much-needed turnaround or are they temporarily masking a larger crisis in Indian agriculture that has been limiting growth in the medium term and threatening our food security?

A revealing international study that used US satellite data to track year-on-year changes in yields, warns that environmental drivers could be pushing agriculture towards stagnation. The findings indicate that India's Green Revolution may have reached unsustainable levels, at least in some parts of the country, and may hit a wall unless massive policy interventions address the situation.

The paper, Decadal Variations in NDVI and Food Production in India, published earlier this year in the open-access Remote Sensing journal, compares agriculture production in two decades – 1982-92 and 1996-06 – and finds a distinct slowdown in growth rates in the latter decade for both kharif and rabi crops. The study points to two worrying environmental factors, among others, that may explain the low growth during 1996 to 2006 – increasing pressure on groundwater due to unsustainable use and rising temperatures in the subcontinent.

The authors, researchers mostly based in the US, used a measure known as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which calculates crop yields using satellite data. For the study, year-on-year data from the US meteorological sensor, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, was used.

As compared to the previous decade, the study found a 50% drop in growth rates in the kharif season during 1996-2006 and, more alarmingly, almost zero growth in the winter crop (rabi). The slowdown was more pronounced in the main foodgrain producing states in north India and in the central portion of the country.

"Around 30% of the total cropland area of India showed a statistically significant decline in growth rate of greenness index during the rabi season," lead author Cristina Milesi from California State University, Monterey Bay, told TOI.

The rabi slowdown is significant because it's primarily dependent on irrigation, increasingly, groundwater. Not surprisingly, states such as Punjab and Haryana where rabi yields are stagnating, also overlap with regions where groundwater use has reached critical levels. The paper estimates that in the absence of any irrigation, it would require 30% to 150% increase in local annual rainfall to sustain the rate of growth in rabi crops seen during 1982-2002 in large portions of peninsular India.

"Our calculations of increase in crop water demand are greatest over the northwest and central-southern peninsula and coincide to a good approximation with areas mapped as suffering from groundwater overexploitation," the paper notes.

Says K Krishna Kumar, climate scientist at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and one of the authors, "What could also be contributing to the fall in growth is accelerated warming since the mid-1990s. Our paper notes that over the past decade, average temperatures have increased by 0.25 degrees Celsius during the kharif season and by 0.6 degrees during rabi. We cite other studies which have linked the recent warming to a potentially reduced rabi crop yield by 6%."

Source: Times of India, 26-11-2010

Poor monsoon hits ‘kar' paddy cultivation

TIRUNELVELI: Vast stretch of cultivable lands, which usually have green cover during the month of July with ‘Kar' paddy saplings, remain arid as the southwest monsoon has let down the district for the second consecutive year.

Though the ‘kar' paddy cultivation is taken up on 20,000 hectares of land every year under Papanasam, Manimuthar, Servalar, Gadana, Ramanadhi and Advainainar dams, the scarce rainfall during the Southwest Monsoon season has discouraged the farmers of Tirunelveli, Palayamkottai and lower regions from testing their fortunes.

During February and April, the catchment areas of Papanasam, Manimuthar and Servalar dams used to experience significant precipitation every year and hence even an average rainfall during the onset of the monsoon would enable the water managers to release water on June 1 for ‘kar' paddy cultivation.

However, the catchment areas registered only 43.08 mm rainfall this year against the normal precipitation of 131.30 mm, restricting the officials to release water only in three irrigation channels.

While the agriculturists in Ambasamudram and Cheranmahadevi regions started farming operations due to their proximity to Papanasam, Manimuthar and Servalar dams and with the water released in South Kodaimelazhagiyan, North Kodaimelazhagiyan and Nadhiyunni channels, farmers in other regions are not prepared to take the risk this year too.

Source: Hindu, 28-7-2010

25 lakh seedlings to be distributed in State

Thiruvananthapuram: Agriculture Minister Mullakara Ratnakaran said here on Wednesday that 25 lakh vegetable seedlings would be distributed free-of-cost across the State through the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Kerala (VFPCK).

Speaking after inaugurating the distribution of seedlings at a function held at the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club, he said the project was conceived with the objective of reducing Kerala's dependence on neighbouring States for vegetables.

“Many of the States are finding it difficult to meet their domestic demand. This is bound to impact the quantum of their exports. The resultant crisis for Kerala can be resolved only by stepping up local production,” he said.

The Minister said homestead cultivation was one way to address the situation.
Director of Agriculture G.Surendran, Press Club secretary Biju Chandrasekhar and VFPCK chief executive officer N. Vijayan were present on the occasion.

The project involved distribution of high-yielding saplings through residents associations.
Seeds and saplings of cold climate vegetables like cabbage will also be sold at concessional price by VFPCK.

Source:The Hindu 22 July 2010

Hope springs anew in the farms of Sooranad North

SOORANAD NORTH (KOLLAM): A sense of robust anticipation is very much in the air as one travels through this panchayat. Paddy, in different stages of ripeness, is awaiting harvest. Farmers are engrossed in de-weeding and a team of women workers are busy putting geo-textile cover to the embankments of the narrow watercourses that criss-cross the panchayat. Sooranad North is getting ready for yet another harvest season that promises unprecedented yields from its paddy fields and vegetable gardens.

Over the past four years, the grama panchayat has been engaged in a collective mission to revive agriculture in this part of the Onattukara paddy belt, a mission in which almost every household in the panchayat is involved in some way or the other. It all began with the preparation of a comprehensive wetland master plan four years ago. With the agricultural activity being fine-tuned as delineated in the master plan and the panchayat deciding on large-scale mechanisation, some farmers were able to produce more than 5.5 tonnes of paddy from one hectare area and earn a profit of Rs.30,000, says panchayat president Madathil Reghu.

Working according to the master plan, the panchayat has succeeded in bringing more than 400 acres of fallow land under paddy, thereby taking paddy farming to almost the entire 1,100 acres of traditional paddy land in the panchayat. More importantly, the panchayat has gone in for full mechanisation in 100 acres out of the 400 acres where paddy farming has been revived. Ten group farming committees in the panchayat have gone in for full mechanisation and efforts are on to bring more samithies into the fold, says Mr. Reghu, who also points out that Sooranad North has been included in the Upper Kuttanad Development Scheme.

A key component of the panchayat's farm development strategy has been the wide use of geo-textiles for the protection of its watercourses. Women have been engaged in giving geo-textile cover to the embankments of the watercourses under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The geo-textile protection has given a new lease of life to the wetlands, says Reghu, who is himself a successful farmer and winner of last year's Best Paddy Farmer Award of the Kollam District Cooperative Bank. C.M. Ravi, another farmer in the panchayat, had won last year's State-level Harita Mithra Award and the Nediyapara Group Farming Samithy last year's State-level best Group Farming Samithy award.

Come Onam and the panchayat would be the market with its own brand of ‘genuine organic vegetables' and it would commission its own rice mill at an estimated outlay of Rs.2 crore. The unit would provide direct employment to around 100 people and indirect employment to over 500 others. The unit would have the capacity to process 4,000 kg paddy and produce 1,000 kg value-added rice products a day.

A team of scientists led by K.P. Sudhir, professor at the Thavannur College of Agricultural Engineering, Malappuram, under the Kerala Agricultural University, is providing technical consultancy support for the project.

With its efforts to revive paddy showing encouraging results, Sooranad North has become the highest producer of paddy in the district and is in the last round among three panchayats in the State competing for the prestigious Nelkathir Award.

According to Mr. Reghu, the panchayat is currently working on the formation of a ‘Labour Bank'.
Sooranad North is also marching towards full coverage in drinking water and power supply.
It has already provided potable water to 90 per cent of the population and given electricity connections to 7,700 out of 8,000 families. It has also constructed 50 houses under the EMS Housing Scheme and provided 20 out of the 27 anganwadis in the panchayat with their own land and building.

Source:The Hindu 19 July 2010

Kochi experiments with dry-land paddy farming

KOCHI: Paddy farming is returning to Kochi.

A few city dwellers have come forward to take up dry land paddy farming in the city in response to a campaign launched by the State Agriculture department. The formal launch of the programme was held at Eda Kochi North in which people's representatives including Mayor Mercy Williams participated.

Kochi had a greener past when a large portion of the present city centre was wetland. Till a few decades ago, these wetlands were used for paddy farming. But they eventually yielded to the pressures of urbanisation and were reclaimed for concrete jungles.

Good response

The bustling city areas of Panampilly Nagar and Vyttila were once paddy fields where the only mode of navigation was country craft. Canals separated the vast extent of green fields, remembered a senior councillor.

The attempt to popularise dry land paddy farming in the city has received a good response, said A. Sati, Agriculture Field Officer of the department. Many people have come forward to try their luck in paddy farming from areas like Palluruthy, Edapally, Vennala and Eda Kochi, she said. People with holdings ranging between 3 cents and 50 cents have approached the department seeking support for farming and seeds were distributed to them, she said.

Source:The Hindu 16 July 2010

Building houses using straw?

Think of a straw-bale house and you might imagine a tumbledown shack that leaks, creaks, and slumps.

But step into BaleHaus, a startlingly contemporary looking prototype home that has been built on the Bath campus, and there's nary a wisp of straw to be seen.

The straw bales are all packed tightly inside a series of prefabricated rectangular wooden wall frames, which are then lime-rendered, dried and finally slotted together like giant Lego pieces, called ModCell panels.

The benefits of straw, points out Professor Peter Walker, director of the University of Bath's BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, are that “it's cheap, widely available and a good insulator. It's been used in building houses for hundreds of years”.
Unlike conventional building materils, straw offers a welcome solution to housing's greenhouse gas emissions.

The results now being published. The researchers spent the last 18 months testing the BaleHaus against an exhaustive list of risk factors that could rot it, burn it or blow it down, so far seem to be reassuring.

The ModCell unit was strapped to a fiery furnace with temperatures of over 1000 degrees C but it did not end up as ashes.

It took an hour-and-a-half of being in direct contact with the flames, says Dr. Katherine Beadle, a research partner, before the lime render began to drop off, “and then the straw did start to burn back, but because it's so compacted it suffered more charring than actual disintegration.”
Hydraulic jacks were placed against the walls to replicate wind forces pushing against the bales — the ModCell panels moved a few millimetres, but stayed within the tolerances allowed for by the computer modelling carried out prior to its construction.

“It means the house is stiffer than it needs to be, so we now have the option of taking away some of that stiffness — ie, reduce its internal timber — and that could reduce the cost,” says Dr. Walker.
In the airtightness test that was carried out, BaleHaus came in way under the building regulations threshold.

In the flood test the researchers are going to stand a panel in a metre of water, gauge how long it takes to dry and assess whether industrial driers cause damage to the straw. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

Source:The Hindu 15 July 2010

Scientists, farmers urged to work together

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Agriculture Mullakkara Ratnakaran has stressed the need for a platform for agricultural scientists and farmers to exchange knowledge. Speaking after inaugurating the Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme (RAWEP) for students of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) here on Wednesday, he highlighted the importance of combining modern agricultural technology with traditional knowledge of farmers.

Mr. Ratnakaran called on agricultural scientists to focus on climate change-based research. He underlined the need to prepare a database on water bodies for irrigation and to take up restoration activities.

The Minister urged scientists to ensure participation of rural folk in the activities to be taken up under RAWEP. He also exhorted them to carry out follow-up programmes. He said the government had sanctioned funds for promotion of rural agriculture in Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts. Swarup John, Dean, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, presided over the function. Implemented through five colleges under KAU, RAWEP offers a platform for students and farmers to share knowledge.

The semester-long programme involves watershed management analysis, farm planning, agri clinics, industrial attachment, research station training, EDP and project management, media attachment, Self Help Group (SHG) training and village stay. The programme seeks to equip agricultural graduates to take up challenging jobs in the changing agricultural scenario

Source:The Hindu 15 July 2010

Winning crop, losing streak for UP’s mango belt

In spite of a bumper mango crop this year, the mango growers of the famous Maal-Malihabad belt of UP are the losers. While last time, it was poor production that had hit them, this time the bumper crop has managed to hit them equally hard.

Because of the poor storage and processing facilities in the state, the farmers are forced to sell the early ripened fruits at extremely low prices in view of the soaring temperature. “Last time, the produce of mangoes was 4 to 5 lakh tonne from the fruit belt. This time it is expected to go up to 8.1 lakh tonnes. But only around 25 tonne mangoes have been exported mainly to the Gulf countries,” informed Bhanu Prakash Ram, Chief Horticulturist of Department of Horticulture and Food Processing in Malihabad.

“Due to the high temperature, the fruits have ripened faster than last time. The market is flooded with mangoes and the rates have gone down. So far, I had to sell the ripe mangoes at Rs 2 per kilogram,” said Vijay Kumar, a young farmer of Aau Mau village of Maal block. The current rate for the famous Dussehri mangoes in the local market is between Rs 7 and Rs 10 per kilo.

Source:Indian Express 14 July 2010

Green therapy

Since the advent of the Green Revolution popularised use of excessive irrigation and fertilisers in India in the 1960s, biodynamic farming, an advanced form of organic farming, had largely faded into oblivion. Biodynamic farming, a return to natural farming free from the use of pesticides and chemicals, is readying for a revival in Punjab, the hub of the Green Revolution in the country .

While organic farming is basically a holistic management system, which promotes and improves the health of the agro-ecosystem, biodynamic farming is a variant where chemical fertilisers are totally replaced by microbial (biological) nutrient givers such as bacteria, algae, fungi, mycorhiza, actinomycetes. This kind of farming looks upon the soil and the farm as living organisms. It regards maintenance and furtherance of soil life as a basic necessity if the soil is to be preserved for generations which is a forward linkage to high-quality crops leading to better feed for livestock and better food for human beings.

Source:Indian Express 14 July 2010

The new shifting agriculture

In the wake of runaway inflation and the ensuing food crisis, the prime minister constituted three high-powered committees of chief ministers and central ministers to recommend ways of containing inflation, improving PDS and boosting agricultural production. The Working Group on agricultural production was chaired by Haryana chief minister B S Hooda, with CMs of West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar as members.

Tucked away, largely unnoticed by the Indian media, as recommendation number 33, the Hooda Committee suggested that like many other countries who have "shopped for land abroad for growing crops to meet consumption needs", Indian companies could also be encouraged to buy lands in other countries for producing pulses and edible oils. The countries listed included Argentina, Myanmar and ASEAN countries where the government could possibly facilitate land acquisitions. "We should seriously consider these options," the Hooda Committee says in earnest, "for at least 2 million tonnes of pulses and 5 million tonnes of edible oil for 15-20 years".

Bizarre though it may sound for a committee appointed to look at ways of boosting agriculture production in India, to make such a suggestion, the Hooda Committee is in fact merely following a recent global trend, legitimized in UN lingo as "large scale land acquisitions", which in NGO-speak is being simply and perhaps, more appropriately, called "land-grabbing".

Following the food crisis in 2008, many countries (China is the undisputed leader of this pack), driven by speculative capital and a growing interest of investment funds in agriculture, have been at the centre of a mad scramble to acquire very large tracts of lands in Africa, Asia and other parts of the developing world. An estimate by FIAN, the international organization that works on the Right to Food, of these land grabs puts the area acquired so far to be approximately the size of France. In 2009 alone, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) put the total money involved at $10-20 billion.

While much of the land grab led by Chinese companies and other global investors like Goldman Sachs started in Africa, it is now a truly global phenomena. The Saudis, in deals that have been facilitated by the International Rice Research Institute, for instance, have already acquired 700,000 hectares of land in desperately poor countries like Senegal and Mali. China has reportedly acquired close to 3 million hectares of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone for palm oil cultivation. Closer home, private equity investors from the UAE have already acquired close to 800,000 hectares of farmland in Pakistan and South Korea has acquired 465,000 hectares in Madagascar. Should India then be joining this global trend?

Land grabbing abroad to meet domestic food needs is a solution that is worse than the problem. It further impoverishes poor farmers in countries where these lands are being acquired even as dictatorial regimes there are willing to sell their most valuable assets for a song to private capital. Foreign investors have little stake in protecting the ecological interests of the countries where these lands are being acquired and leased and are likely to leave them degraded permanently and move on elsewhere once the productivity in these areas decline.

They also come in the way of the obligation of the countries where these lands are being acquired to their own citizens on the right to food. Most of the land acquisitions are happening in countries that have some of the highest rates of child malnutrition and are hunger hotspots. It is also a myopic solution, fraught with many risks, including displacing local labour and destabilizing local governments. In the case of India, it is an open admission of failure to increase productivity domestically by investing in agriculture.

source:Times of India 9 July 2010

Chapparappadavu sets a model in farming

Chapparappadavu (KANNUR): The people of Chapparappadavu are no strangers to innovative approaches to people's participation for local development. The ‘people's bridge' built across the Chapparappadavu river here is a standing testimony to the panchayat's abiding faith in participatory development. Now the panchayat's focus is on expansion of vegetable and plantain cultivation through active public participation.

If the bridge was built with voluntary labour of the villagers, the panchayat's drive to increase vegetable and plantain production is all the more innovative as it involves school students and their parents.

The drive to increase vegetable production, launched in 2008-'09, has proved to be sustainable, yielding a rich harvest.

Actually, the panchayat began focussing its energies on plantain cultivation in 2009-10 inspired by the success of its vegetable cultivation endeavour. “We started vegetable and plantain cultivation schemes as a model for the entire State and named them ‘Ente pachakkarithottam' (my vegetable garden) and ‘Ente vazhathottam' (my plantain garden),” says panchayat president K.M. Mathew.

The panchayat distributed two plantain saplings to the 7,500-odd households and one plantain sapling each to 4,017 students from 11 schools to mark the launch of the programme. In addition, vegetable seeds were distributed in kits to the students coming from 3,000-odd households. Each household produced an average three kg. of vegetables, claims the president.

As for plantain cultivation, 22,000 plantain saplings were distributed and it is harvest time now. “We hope to produce one lakh saplings from the plantain cultivation and it means that we need not buy the saplings from outside for continuation of the scheme this year.” says O. P. Ibrahimkutty, panchayat vice-president.

Marketing fair

With the produce from its gardens, the panchayat was able to conduct a vegetable marketing fair during the last Onam season. Involvement of the school students has also turned out to be a success story.

The Government UP School at Thadikkadavu in the panchayat is a leader in implementing the schemes. One acre of school land was under banana cultivation and 40 cents of land under vegetable cultivation last year.

“The school has taken up the schemes seriously and involved 400-odd students and their parents and teachers,” says Headmaster C.J. Ouseph.

The harvested bananas are being distributed among the students, he says.

source: The Hindu 8July2010

Two leading lights in vegetable farming

ALAPPUZHA: It is not everyday that a couple of small coastal villages become role models for an entire State or influence national policy. But Mararikulam North and the neighbouring Kanjikuzhy panchayat here have done this, more than once.

The self-sufficiency both these villages have achieved in vegetable cultivation, with no household here having to depend on markets elsewhere, was the first step. This was not easy, because the geography here boasted just sandy tracts, with fertility and water being extreme scarcities. Still, in 1996, with less than Rs.60,000 to buy seeds and fertilizers, Kanjikuzhy set out to see that all households, even those with the tiniest of plots, had at least one vegetable cultivated. Mararikulam North followed suit.

Target met in 4 years
“The Panchayat Development Society (PDS) gave incentives for vegetable cultivation and ensured a strong marketing system, and the outcome was that vegetable ‘import' into the region came to a halt. Self-sufficiency was achieved in less than four years,” says Mararikulam North panchayat president D. Priyesh Kumar.
Housewives, pensioners and farmers saw steady incomes and after successful experiments of seashore organic vegetable cultivation, they became the first panchayats in the country to declare benchmark (floor) prices for 19 varieties of organically cultivated vegetables, which meant that the farmers would not incur losses due to fluctuating market prices.
Battle against Bt

Just when things appeared to be moving smoothly, the Bt brinjal controversy erupted. The people of Mararikulam, where an indigenous variety of brinjal has been popular for decades, saw this as a threat. They reacted. Mass production of Mararikulam brinjal seeds, production of brinjal pickles by self-help-groups, popularisation of brinjal cultivation in every household and then, a first-of-its-kind Brinjal Festival, followed. The festival was what turned the tables on Bt brinjal. The opinion of scientists, organic farming experts and the massive public demand generated from the festival, along with protests across the nation, saw the Centre declare a moratorium on the release of the genetically modified version.

Now, as Mararikulam North is looking to master precision farming, Kanjikuzhy is aiming at self-reliance in all aspects, and in turn, total food security. “From vegetables, we are moving on to all crops, including paddy. The MGNREGS and other schemes are being utilised. A Rs.4-crore project is in progress for cashew cultivation. Medicinal plant cultivation is being encouraged in all households and every bit of fallow land is being made cultivable,” says Kanjikuzhy panchayat president P. Anil Kumar.

source:The Hindu 3rd July 2010

Notification for crop insurance issued

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The notification of the climate-based crop insurance being implemented jointly by the Central and the State governments and the Agricultural Insurance Company of India has been issued. It will be available for the pepper cultivators of Wayanad and Idukki districts and the paddy cultivators of Palakkad district. The scheme provides for the payment of compensation for variation of rainfall during the period insured.

The premium to be paid by the farmers is Rs.662 per acre for pepper and Rs.243 per acre for paddy. The Centre and the State will provide 50 per cent of the premium for pepper and 78 per cent of the premium for paddy as subsidy. The maximum compensation to be paid is Rs.10,000 per acre. The last date for joining the scheme is July 6. More details can be had from the regional office of the Agricultural Insurance Company of India in Thiruvananthapuram or from the Krishi Bhavans.

Source: The Hindu, 2 June 2010