Geography and You May-June 2017 PDF
Geography and You May-June 2017 PDF
Geography and You May-June 2017 PDF
A De v e l op m e n t A n D e n v i ron m e n t m Ag A z i n e
GeoGraphy and you
G’ny SINCe 2001 Vol. 17, ISSue 102, 2017
Increased
demand for
THE
diverse food has
put agricultural
resources under
severe stress
AGRi-TECH
PERsPECTivEs
6 Changing Farmers’ Income and Agrarian Distress
26 Mutation Breeding for Crop Improvement
40 The GM Food Imbroglio
62 Forest Stewardship Council
68 Living Root Bridges
October 5 - 6, 2017, India Habitat Centre,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India
LIGHTS (Learning in
Knowledge Geography and You,
Organised by Geography, Humanities,
Technology and Science)
partner New Delhi
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ENvIroNmENt maGazINE
Vol. 17 Issue 102 May-June 2017
Expert Panel
Prithvish Nag B Meenakumari Ajit Tyagi B Sengupta
Vice Chancellor, Chairperson, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Former Member Secretary,
MG Kashi Vidyapeeth, National Biodiversity Former DG, IMD, Central Pollution Control
Varanasi. Authority, Chennai. New Delhi. Board, New Delhi.
Rasik Ravindra Sachidanand Sinha Saraswati Raju D Mukhopadhyay
Former Director, Professor, CSRD, Professor, CSRD, Director,
NCAOR, Goa. Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru Economic Research,
University, New Delhi. University, New Delhi. Nielsen, New Delhi.
march-april 2017 issue: The issue titled ‘Managing Water’ is the
most comprehensive publication on water that I have seen in a
long time. After going through the articles I realised that most of
GeoGraphy and you
our water users are not aware of water rights. The article ‘Water
editor Rights System for India’ brings out many facets of who owns water.
Sulagna Chattopadhyay I think this is the basic problem in groundwater management. The
senior advisor government should recognise the problem and build proactive
SaraSwati raju forums to find out what would work for India. The issue has been
very informative and is a must-read—Rashi Das, BuRDwan Via e-mail.
legal advisor
KriShnendu datta For more details log on to our website www.geographyandyou.com
cover photo
drying a CoB of Corn
in a Barn—Shillong,
i wanted to subscribe G’nY magazine environment than so many places in India. I
meghalaya online for 12 issues, but I found things was wondering why G’nY does not publish
were a bit difficult on the web as it showed a special issue on this area with all its
photo team cancellation after paying the money. I geographical, agricultural and urbanisation
praSad
tried many times and had to co-ordinate related perspectives. —MChOLDT sinGh,
with your office on the phone before the iMphaL, ManipuR Via e-mail.
iris publication
pvt. ltd. subscription went through. I have got my
registered office copy now. But, some readers may not be i have read many articles on air purifying
111/9 K g, aruna aSaf ali
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as patient and would likely miss out on the indoor plants in the previous issues of
enriching G’nY experience. Please rectify G’nY. I am increasingly becoming aware of
correspondence/ the matter to reach out better. —anJan large multi-national companies trying to sell
editorial office MOhanTY, nEw DELhi. air purifiers to the hapless public. I do not
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pleaSe ContaCt anymore. Are you planning to organise
CirCulation manager
e-mail: info@ something in the future—it would be quite i watched the webcast that G’nY aired
geographyandyou.com interesting. I also request you to conduct on March 8, 2017. The conversation on
pleaSe viSit our Site at
www.geographyandyou.com
a webcast on the lines of your previous Women’s Day was very interesting. This
for further information. broadcasts, on COP 21, exit of USA and kind of discussions on similar issues is very
impact on India. —siDDhaRTh shaRMa, welcome. —ManGuLu ChaRan paTRa, Via website.
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ltd.
all rightS reServed
i thank the G’nY team for posting an
throughout the world. i have seen the G’nY Climate published inspirational page on your website on
reproduCtion in any by you. I think it is only online. May I women’s contribution to save environment.
manner, part or whole,
iS prohiBited. printed, suggest that this may be provided as an Aptly posted on women’s day, I feel scores
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Sulagna Chattopadhyay. enhance the reading habits of young people both human and in nature.—ViKash KuMaR
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Edi t or’s no t E
EDITORIAL
Strengthening Agri-Innovations
Food, central to our existence, has singularly The dependency
proved to be a mechanism for global governance. India continues on a preferred
to combat hunger and confront food crises in a backdrop of an
set of crops in
ever growing population. The country has engaged in a wide
range of historical debates from scientific, political-ideological,
India has reduced
to even ethical. Agriculture has been from ancient times the its agricultural
mainstay of the population, yet the country remains innovation resilience.
hungry. The agro-food-tech
has been largely supply driven
and thus remained unable to
capture the entire ambit of
agriculture. A preferred set of
crops has emerged that have
come to be understood to have
caused health and nutritional
imbalance among the people.
And now a relatively recent
growth trajectory is being drawn
to include genetically modified
crops in the food basket. This
issue of G’nY includes viewpoints
of experts who argue that various
successful methods exist,
opposed to genetic modification,
that offer fetching results quite
easily. The imbroglio of the
agro-food-tech debate may just
as well be avoided if certain scientific methods are adopted, say Fashioning a broom to
for example soil sensors among others, which help apprise the sweep up the harvest,
farmer about specific nutritional requirements of his land. Efficient West Champran, Bihar.
water usage, better soil health, low cost high-yielding inputs, well-
positioned cold chains, small and marginal farmer cooperatives,
and innovative farm to market interfaces would ensure a higher
output in a relatively short period.
Happy reading.
Sulagna Chattopadhyay
By Elumalai Kannan
CHANGING
FARMERS’ INCOME AND
AGRARIAN DISTRESS
A strong trend towards agricultural diversification from food to
commercial crops and from enterprise to allied activities is emerging.
This shift is driven by both, state policies and the domestic market
and has a bearing upon small and marginal landholders.
Taking cue from many developed
and developing economies, India
PhoTo: Prasad
8.00
6.00
Per cent
4.00
2.00
0.00
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
2014-15
-2.00
Source: Computed from various issues: Central Statistical Office. Ministry of The share of agriculture in overall gross domestic product (GDP) has
Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi. declined overtime. An average growth rate of 3 per cent was observed in
agriculture and allied activities during 1993-94 to 2014-15 whereas the
overall GDP was 6.4 per cent during the same period.
Fig. 2: Changes in composition of output from agriculture and allied activity at 2011-12 prices
14
12
FORESTRY
2007-08 62.85 per cent 19.22 per cent 7-08
2007-08 4.39 per cent 2007-08
2013-14 62.03 per cent 18.74 per cent 2013-14 2013-14
10 4.45 per cent
8
Per cent growth rate
CROP SECTOR
Horticulture
6
FISHERY
4
Field crops
Horticulture 5.04
5 04
5 46
5.46
5 65
5.65
t y 12.39
12 39
Livestock 6.49
6 49
6 08
6.08
Fishery 5.45
5 45
2
LIVESTOCK
Sector
Fi ld Crops
Forestry
Overall
C
S
Field
Crop
F
C
GROWTH RATE
2000-01 to 2013-14
45.09 per cent 2002-03 25.04 per cent 2002-03 3.87 per cent 2002-03
43.63 per cent 2007-08 23.02 per cent 2007-08 9.74 per cent 2007-08
2013-14 7.44 per cent 2013-14
43.29 per cent 2013-14 26.08 per cent
Source: Computed from various issues: Central Statistical Office. Ministry of The growth in output from the crop sector declined between 2002-03
Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi. and 2013-14 with annual growth rate of 5.46 per cent which was less than
the annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent of livestock. Annual growth rate in
output from forestry was high i. e .12.4 per cent despite decline in output
growth between 2007-08 and 2013-14.
Fig. 3: Annual growth in agricultural gross value added and consumer price index
for agricultural labourers
Percentage change in consumer price index for agricultural labourers
(CPIAL) was higher than the agricultural income for most of the years with
25.0 a few exceptions when agricultural income exceeded the consumer price
index, primarily due to droughts. The trend in movement of agricultural
20.0 income clearly indicates that the purchasing power of farmers remained
low and worsened during the recent years.
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
-5.0
-10.0
2005-06
2000-01
2003-04
2004-05
2008-09
2002-03
2006-07
1999-00
1983-84
1984-85
1985-86
1989-90
1990-91
1988-89
1993-94
1995-96
1998-99
2001-02
1994-95
1982-83
1992-93
1986-87
1996-97
2007-08
2009-10
1991-92
1981-82
1987-88
1997-98
2010-11
2013-14
2012-13
2011-12
Source: Computed from various issues: Central Statistical Office. Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi.
Agri-food
SyStem
trAnSformAtion
and farmers
Tracing changes with new start-ups in the production and retail
segments of the value chain, the article analyses diffusion
and impacts of organised retailing on farming community and
outlines policy implications.
PhOtO: PrasaD
and higher asset position. Experience in Kenya The enormous size of the retailing giants vis-a-
reveals that the government on its own or in vis the traditional retail and the small and medium
collaboration with private players and NGOs, can enterprises in the procurement of goods and serv-
facilitate participation of disadvantaged farmers ices can lead to unfair advantages to the retailing
by making better provision of infrastructure and giants both local and foreign. Therefore, Indian
transportation and credit facilities. The Chinese competition laws have to be reviewed after care-
government encouraged direct procurement by fully studying the experiences of other developed
providing investment support for construction of and developing countries. For example, USA has a
distribution centres, cold storages and facilities for Robinson-Patman Act since the 1930s to provide
testing products procured directly from the farmer a level playing field to the traditional retailers in
cooperatives. The central government needs to procurement. Zoning restrictions and other similar
mull over these issues. suggestions may be considered depending on local
Perishable
agricultural
Market reforMs:
Policy and issues
The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) has
been criticised for its redundancies regarding buyers’
and sellers’ transactions. However, this is due to options
available now for direct sale and contract farming.
Photo: PraSad
Post harvest losses in fruits in India Maximum post harvest losses in India during 2013-14 in fruits and
during 2013-14 vegetables were 15.88 and 12.4 per cent, respectively. In Uttarakhand
Minimum 6.7 per cent alone, during 2008-09, tomato harvest experienced a 20 per cent post
Maximum 15.88 per cent Source: Jha et al, 2015 harvest loss including losses incurred at retail level.
Agri-Terms
Agriculture and allied sectors not only fulfill food and nutritional requirements of 1.3 billion
Indians, but also provide livelihood to around 50 per cent of its population. During 2013-14, 66.64
million tonnes of more food grains were produced in comparison to 2004-05. In the same year,
agriculture and allied sectors contributed 14 per cent to total gross domestic product (GDP) of
the country. If the agricultural sector interests you here are a few terms that will challenge your
knowledge. Turn to page 33 for answers and explanations.
3. Hydroponics 8. Mutagenesis
a. The science used to grow plants without use of soil. a. It is the process of change in genetic information of
b. The technology used to grow plants without use of an organism by natural or artificial means.
water. b. Genetically modifying the organism by inducing
c. The science of growing plants under water. chemicals in a laboratory.
c. Direct manipulation of genes of an organism to
achieve desired traits.
4. Pharming
a. Mutagenesis of plants or animals to extract useful
drugs. 9. Atomic Gardening
b. Genetically modifying the plant or animal gene a. Exposing plants to a radiation source to produce
to extract useful drugs or make them disease mutations
resistant. b. Experimentally growing plants on land affected by
c. The production of using pharmaceutical products radioactivity
for crops to increase disease resistance. c. The study of the effects of cosmic rays on plants.
Mutation
Breeding for Crop
Improvement
Crop improvement programmes through induced mutations
were initiated nine decades ago. Nearly 3250 mutant varieties
belonging to about 175 plant species have been developed
and released. India has made a significant contribution in crop
improvement through mutation breeding.
Netherlands
Japan
Germany
Russia
India
China
Bangladesh
Vietnam
Pakistan
Bulgaria
USA
South Korea
Thailand
Belgium
Sweden
Canada
Poland
France
Italy
UK
40 40 39 35 34 31 26 22 21
Fig 2: Number of mutant cultivars released in top 20 crops a cross the world
Chrysanthemum
Common bean
Sesame
Cotton
Mungbean
Pea
Wheat
Barley
Rice
Pigeonpea
Rapeseed
Favabean
Chickpea
Urdbean
Cowpea
Tomato
Lentil
Oat
23 22 21 20 20 13 12 9 7
An overwhelming majority of
mutant varieties have been devel-
oped for rice, way above the 20 top
crops analysed, at 820 cultivars.
■ 1 to 5 Correct - Informed
■ 6 to 8 Correct - Knowledge bank
■ 9 to 10 Correct - Encyclopaedia
2. Precision Farming
Ans. b: Precision farming aims at increasing produc-
tivity, decreasing production costs and minimising the 7. Haulm
environmental impact of farming by utilising information Ans. a: Haulm is the stem or top of crop plants such as
and technology based management system. The peas or potatoes left after the crop has been gathered.
information on soil and crop characteristics unique to This world has originated from old English.
each part of the field is acquired by use of technology
including telecommunications, global positioning
systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS),
variable rate controllers, and infield and remote sensing 8. Mutagenesis
and used to increase the production. Ans. a: Mutagenesis is the process of change in genetic
information of an organism due to exposure to mutagens
leading to mutation. It may occur naturally or can be
done in laboratories. Whereas genetic modification is the
3. Hydroponics process to change the genetic makeup of cells in labora-
Ans. a: Hydroponics is the science of growing plants tories that includes transfer of genes within and across
without use of soil. Instead of using soil, plants are species to produce organisms with desired traits.
grown in a sufficiently nutrient-rich water solution.
9. Atomic Gardening
4. Pharming Ans. a: Atomic gardening is a form of mutation breeding
Ans. b: It is the process of genetically modifying where plants are exposed to radioactive sources, typically
plants and animals so that they produce substances cobalt-60 in order to generate useful mutations.
which may be used as pharmaceuticals. It is also
known as molecular farming or biopharming.
Genetically
Modified
Technology
EvEn if YOU ignOrE ‘gM’ it will nOt ignOrE YOU!
There are only two traits in 98 per cent of GM foods—production of
a pesticide in every cell of the plant or the ability to withstand weed
killing herbicides. GM food cannot be distinguished from non-GM
food, so you will eat it if India grows it.
Photo: PrAsAd
B
t cotton is the first genetically modified (GM) crop
in India by the insertion of one or more genes from a
Box 1:
common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
India’s central biotech regulator Genetic Engineering
Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has recently cleared GM The Claim: If India
mustard for commercial cultivation and recommended its approval does not opt for GM
to the Indian ministry of environment. Awaiting approval are rice, technology it will be ‘left
wheat, jowar, corn, groundnut, mustard, potato, tomato, cabbage, behind’ in agricultural
cauliflower, brinjal, okra, papaya, watermelon and sugarcane. growth.
An attempt to release Bt brinjal in India was dropped in 2010
after opposition by consumers, doctors, farmers, scientists and The Fact
others. The then minister for environment placed a moratorium Only six countries grow 90
on its release saying that “until we arrive at a political, scientific and per cent of the worlds GM
societal consensus, this moratorium will remain”. He was following crops (USA 40, Brazil 23,
the precautionary principle of the United Nations which says that Argentina 14, Canada 6,
Governments may stop a product if there is “suspected risk of harm to India 6, China 2 and other
the public or environment…” and in an absence of scientific consensus countries 9 per cent (Inter-
that it is not harmful. Was he being over cautious? No. There is no national Service for the
consensus among scientists about the safety of GM foods. Most coun- Acquisition of Agri-biotech
tries of the world therefore follow the precautionary principle and Applications, 2015). Less
refuse to grow GM crops. They find the benefits claimed for them are than 30 of the world’s
false or exaggerated, whereas there can be risks to consumer health, about 200 countries grow
natural biodiversity, agriculture, exports and the seed sovereignty of GM. Notably, 17 out of
the country which adopts it. Food and farming affect us all and it is the 20 most developed
very important to know how and why GM will influence these. countries do not grow
GM—including almost all
What is GM technology? countries in Europe plus
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes GM technology as Japan, Russia, Israel and
one in which the “DNA has been altered in a way that does not occur Singapore etc. China,
naturally. . .” Unlike normal crop breeding, which is within the same which grew GM crops six
species—rice with rice, GM may insert animal and bacterial genes years before us, is very
into food crops. For instance a fish gene was inserted in a tomato, but cautious. It now has only
but later the research was withdrawn on ethical grounds. A bacterial one third the GM crop
gene was to be inserted in Bt brinjal, as it has been in Bt cotton. GM areas that India has and
in medicine is taken by choice, after a lot of testing, medical super- has banned GM food for its
vising and can be dropped. But when GM seeds are planted nobody army. In 2015, the global
can control the spread of the GM trait to other related plants through
area under GM declined as
pollination and seed dispersal.
eight countries (including
Nature is complex and various species co-evolve over hundreds, or
USA, Canada, China)
even thousands of years. Any major intervention in this complex web
reduced its GM area, only
of life can lead to consequences which are not foreseeable. Thus a small
four countries increased
modification of a protein led to the unpredicted mad cow disease in
their area and 16 were
England. GM in crops is opposed on the grounds that it is unpredict-
stagnant (www.isaaa.org/
able, risky, uncontrollable and irreversible.
resources). So India will not
Even 20 years after their commercial release in 1996, there are only
be left behind if it does not
two traits in 98 per cent of GM crops. First is a pesticide producing
grow GM crops.
trait from the insertion of a toxin producing bacterium e. g. Bacillus
thuringiensis for Bt crops. The second is a herbicide tolerant trait
(HT crops) so that weed killing herbicides can be foods and medicine in India. Now with GM
sprayed to kill all plants other than the HT crop. mustard near-approval, it may become the first GM
Both these traits may have short term benefits, but food crop in India. Some people are excited because
in the long term both have hazardous consequences it is developed by an Indian scientist. Others point
for human health, agriculture and for the environ- out that this does not remove any of the GM risks.
ment since the toxins enter soil, water and the food GM mustard has a herbicide tolerant gene. The
chain of all species including humans. giant GM seed companies, who eventually buy up
The agri-biotech industry and the agricultural GM patents, are also leading pesticide companies
scientists—many of whom benefit from funding by and benefit no matter who produces a herbicide
industry, claim that India will be ‘left behind’ and tolerant GM plant!
will not be able to feed its growing population if we The claim that this GM mustard will give 20 -25
do not adopt GM crops. They claim that GM will per cent higher yield can be refuted on the grounds
increase yields, reduce pesticides, increase farmer that the developer compared its yield with old, low
incomes and do this safely. Let us look at all these yielding varieties and not high yielding hybrids
claims and the actual facts (Box 1). already available in India. Globally, eight out of the
11 countries which have higher yields than India
should we have, or should we stop GM grow non-GM rapeseed-mustard.
Mustard in india? Mustard is also one of the major sources of food for
Mustard, whose relatives are rapeseed and canola honey bees. There is great concern that GM mustard
—has leaves, seeds and oil which are important could impact not only contamination of honey, but
The GM food
IMbroGlIo
Genetically modified crops have been under scrutiny for being
unhealthy, destroying the traditional cropping practices and yet they
seem to be providing answers to burgeoning food requirements. A
careful system of scientific monitoring has to be in place prior to the
induction of such endeavours in India.
Genetic modification: the science behind it switched off so that although the fruit ripens in the
A gene is a code that governs our appearance normal way, it will not soften as quickly. This can be
and characteristics. When a scientist genetically useful because it means that damage is minimised
modifies (GM) a plant, s/he inserts a foreign gene during packing and transportation.
in the plant’s own genes. What makes it possible to In traditional processing, characteristics can
transfer genes from one species to another is the fact only be exchanged between species which are the
that all genes are created from the same material same or very similar. By genetic modification,
DNA. Beneficial genes are transferred into plant however, it is now possible to add a fish gene to a
cells using a soil bacterium, Agrobacterium tume- tomato. By this, researchers created a frost-resistant
faciens, which can produce tumour-like growths tomato plant by adding an antifreeze gene from a
in plants and has the ability to alter plants’ DNA. cold-water fish to tomato. However, the research
For example, when a gene from a bacterium that has not made substantive headway.
is resistant to pesticide is inserted into a plant’s
gene, the plant will be able to withstand pesticides. GM food experiments and trials in india
Genetic modification does not always involve India produces Bt cotton, which contains a biolog-
moving a gene from one organism to another. ical pesticide that kills the common pest bollworm.
Sometimes it means changing how a gene works by The approval for the use of Bt cotton has been there
‘switching it off’ to stop something from happening. from 2002 and since then it has helped make our
For example, the gene for softening a fruit could be country the second largest cotton manufacturer in
14000
Bollworms
Other sucking pests
12000 11598
Quantities of insecticides in metric tonnes
10045
10000 9367
7885
8000 6863 7234
6726 6828
5914 5543
6000 5057
4623
4000
2000
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Corn Cotton soybeAn CAnolA suGAr beet PAPAyA brInjAl CArrot PoPlAr sweet tomAto squAsh AlfA AlfA
PePPer
Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, 2014
A cold chain for perishable foods is the uninter- either electricity for pre-cooling and cold storage or diesel
rupted handling of produce within a low temperature fuel for transport refrigeration continues. Earlier the bulk
environment which includes harvest, collection, packing, cold stores had fewer large sized chambers. The conven-
processing, storage, transport and marketing until it tional buildings were made of RCC frames, brick walls
reaches the final consumers. According to the Central and truss type sheet roofs having multi-level chambers
Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology constructed with wooden or steel grating where loading
(CIPHET), on an average 18 per cent of India’s fruits and and unloading was done manually. The recent trend is to
vegetables, valued at INR 133 billion is wasted annually have multi-purpose cold storages with larger numbers
due to widespread fragmentation in the cold chain such of chambers with smaller capacity that vary from 5 to
as lack of refrigerated transport, up-to-date cold storages, 12 m or higher. It holds goods in a stacking system with
insufficient grid power to run cold storage in the rural modern racks that are designed for mechanised loading
areas, poor infrastructure and road connectivity. and unloading of pallets or boxes, using electrical hoists/
Earlier, cold storages largely located in potato growing lifts and/or fork lift trucks. Also now it is possible to have
areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal simultaneous storage of a variety of items for farmers,
were mainly designed for a single commodity. Most traders and other customers.
of these used old technology in terms of construction, In old cold storages rice husk was used as thermal
thermal insulation and refrigeration systems with practi- insulation which needed very large insulation thicknesses.
cally no automation. Nowadays, with the use of improved It also caused maintenance and hygiene problems.
technology, shelf life is being extended by adopting This method is now almost extinct. The recent practice
controlled atmosphere (CA) storage in which oxygen is is to use expanded polystyrene (EPS), fiberglass, poly-
maintained at about 5 per cent and carbon dioxide at 1 to urethane rigid foam (PUF), extruded polystyrene (XPS) or
3 per cent, while temperature is adjusted to the particular similar materials for insulation. Application of computers
commodity, particularly fruits such as apples and pears. to control the loading, unloading operations and to main-
Over the past many years, the cold storage technolo- tain the record of stocks is also practiced in some of the
gies in India have undergone a significant transformation. recent cold stores.
From the point of view of utilisation also, the contemporary
cold stores offer much wider scope than in the past The author is at IL&FS Clusters, New Delhi.
although heavy reliance on access to affordable source of [email protected]
Optical
SenSing
Of SOil nutrientS
for ‘Smart farming’
Over the years, chemical fertilisers have been applied to soil in
order to increase their fertility. However over or under application
of fertilisers can damage the crop yield and also cause serious
ecological concerns. Soil testing thus acquires an important
place in farming, specifically in site specific crop management.
Non-destructive in-situ measurements of soil nutrients with cost
effective optical sensing methods can help in determining and
monitoring the nutrient levels in the soil.
Detectional measurement
of target nutrient
Algorithm
development
Obtaining soil
The soil sensor will indicate spectral signature
the deficiency of Nitrogen (N),
Phosphorous (P) or Potassium
(K) at a location. This will help the Nutrient sensing
farmers use fertilisers optimally.
Pre-processing
Soil sampling
optical sensing based soil nutrient system which is in an experimental stage now, has six steps to detect the nutrient content on the field. once
developed, it will become a boon to farmers as they will be able to know the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium requirement in their fields.
references
Artigas J., A Beltran, C Jiménez, A Baldi, R Mas,
could be realised with the proposed system are: C Domınguez, J Alonso. 2001. Application
Real-time automated soil nutrient sensor for site of ion sensitive field effect transistor based
specific crop management; sensors to soil analysis. Computers and
Real-time fertility assessment of soil and opti- Electronics in Agriculture, ISSN 0168-1699,
misation it according to the needs of a particular 31:281-293.
plant; Escadafal R. and Alfred 0. R. Huete. 1992.
Information from such a sensor can be used to Soil optical properties and environmental
effectively modify crop management practices applications of Remote sensing, in
leading to better yield is; and Proceedings 17th ISPRS Congress, 29(B7):
Variable rate of fertiliser applicator based on the 709-715
amount of nutrient already present in the soil. FAO. 2009. Global Agriculture Towards 2050.
High Level Expert Forum. October 12-13,
Future perspectives Rome. Available at: at:http://www.fao.org/
Smart farming is an attractive technology and is fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/
expected to augment the potentials of a resource HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf.
efficient approach to farming. This would enhance Ferwerda, A.Z. Kouzani. 2010. Wireless sensor
more productive and sustainable agricultural networks for in-situ image validation for
production. water and nutrient management. Proceedings
Although quite a bit of work is already being of ISPRS Technical Commission VII
done in this field, most of the methods employ Symposium, Institute of Photogrammetry
very costly equipment such as spectrophotometers and Remote Sensing, Vienna University of
as well as destructive chemical analyses etc. The Technology, pp. 187-192.
research mainly focused on developing simple Jianhan Lin, Maohua Wang , Miao Zhang, Yane
cost-effective and non-destructive methods of Zhang, Li Chen. 2007. Electrochemical
detecting soil nutrients through optical sensors sensors for soil nutrient detection :
is, at present, in a nascent stage. However, efforts Opportunities and challenges, in 12th
are being made in the direction of making the ‘soil proceedings. International Conference on
nutrient sensing system’ in such a way that farmers Computer and Computing Technologies in
could probably carry it to the fields and test the Agriculture (CCTA 2007), Wuyishan, China,
fertility of the soil in-situ. This will help the farmers pp. 1349-1353.
to assess the quality of the soils in the fields and aid Lehmann Ulrike, Alain Grisel. 2004. Miniature
in determining the accurate amount of fertilisers Multisensor Probe for Soil Nutrient
to be added to the soil. In addition to increased Monitoring. Procedia Engineering, ISSN 1877-
productivity, it will also prevent pollution of 7058, 87: 1429-1432.
ground and surface water caused due to excessive Nair R. 2016. Precision Agriculture – A long way
application of fertilisers. to go for India. Agro News, 2 September.
Women in agriculture
By Staff RepoRteR
Majority of women workforce in India is ◆ As per the Agriculture Census (2010-11) published in
engaged in the agricultural sector and this domain could 2014, merely 12.78 per cent of agricultural landholdings
not have sustained this far without the seminal role played are in the name of women. This excludes women in deci-
by them. Unfortunately, women are still looked upon as sion making concerning farming and related work.
labourers and not as farmers. They are the invisible face • McKinsey Global Institute in 2015 reports that, ‘more
of agriculture. Following are a few highlights showing the women in India tend to work in low-productivity jobs than
position of women, their role and contribution in agricul- men. 75 per cent of female employment in rural areas is in
tural and allied activities. agriculture compared with 59 per cent for men’.
◆ Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2011, estimates The blight of gender bias and unequal social status is
that ‘women produce between 60-80 per cent of the very much witnessed in women’s work status in agricul-
food in most developing countries and are responsible ture as most women do not have land rights even after
for half of the world’s food production’ ( SOFA team they have been farmers throughout their lifetime. It is of
and Doss). utmost importance that rural women be appreciated for
◆ In the Indian Himalayas a pair of bulls works 1,064 their identity and be uplifted in their position by
hours, a man 1,212 hours and a woman 3,485 hours in recognising their role in agriculture production.
a year on a one-hectare farm, a figure which illustrates
women’s significant contribution to agricultural produc-
tion (Vandana Shiva, 1991: Food and Agriculture
Organisation of United Nations, Sustainable Develop-
ment department, New Delhi).
◆ According to Satyavathi et al., in Gender, Technology
Svalbard Spitsbergen
Global
Seed
Vault
Greenland
NorweGiaN Sea
The
DoomsDay
VaulT –
ConserVaTion for
the World’s Crops
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault or the Doomsday Vault is a seed
storage facility for the world’s agricultural crops that can help
in combating the effects of climate change, population growth,
extinction of crop species and destruction of gene banks.
PhoTo courTesy : croP TrusT, flickr.com
references
Carrington, Damian 2017. Arctic stronghold of
world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts, The
Guardian, 19th May.
Duggan, Jennifer 2016. Inside the Doomsday Vault,
PhoTo courTesy : croP TrusT, flickr.com
Water in most of the major reservoirs across the Krishna and Godavari
rivers has reached dead storage level. Boys, girls and women all are
in search of a drop of water. Two villages in Mahabubnagar district,
situated on either side of a dried-up river Tungbhadra, are dependent on
oozing pits in the river bed.
Scarcity
and
diSplacement:
Water Woes Compel
The clouds have been unkind to Telangana for
years, taking a toll on the land, rendering water
bodies barren and scarred. To combat this, the
Telangana government took to building reservoirs
to irrigate the drought-prone districts. For those
who agreed to be displaced, life has thrown up
challenges. Villagers had to leave their homes,
farms and move.
Forest
stewardship
CounCil
The forest certification systems by the Forest Stewardship
Council is reflective of an emergent need, intertwining
business and ethics. Its guidelines have setup a benchmark
against which the modus operandi of timber corporations and
plantations can be examined.
endnote
The increasing appeal of FSC prescribed princi-
ples indicates that these guidelines have entered
the arena of international soft laws. However,
in order to be effective, it is important to work
towards enhancing the value attached to certi-
fied forests in developing nations since a major
segment of the world’s biodiversity hotspots lie in
the global south. By spreading awareness amongst
consumers and exerting pressure on corporations,
one should work towards incorporating sustain-
able forest management principles into the body
of international hard laws, i. e. actual binding legal
instruments and laws.
references
Dingwerth, K. 2007. The New Transnationalism:
Transnational Governance and Democratic
Legitimacy, The Forest Stewardship Council.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.
144-185.
Gale, F. and Haward, M., 2011. Global
as of now, barely 0.8 out of 78.92 million ha have been certified Commodity Governance State Responses to
by FsC. In fact, the FsC certified wood makes up for less than 10 Sustainable Forest and Fisheries Certification
per cent of the wood which is in demand. Pattberg P. 2005. What Role for Private
Rule-Making in Global Environmental
Governance? Analysing the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC). International
centres have, for instance, been fairly effective in Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and
establishing multi-stakeholder forums with the Economics, 5 (2): 175-189.
support of locals, improving the equation between Takoni L., Obidzinski K., & Agung F. 2004.
corporations and the local populace. However, Learning lessons to promote forest
there is a need to improve the power equation certification and control illegal logging in
between FSC and the natives by including more Indonesia. CIFOR Library, Indonesia.
local representatives in their forum. Till now, the Taylor P. L. 2005. In the market but not of it:
corporations had adopted a top-down approach, Fair trade coffee and forest stewardship
whereas a bottom-up approach would be more council certification as market-based social
beneficial (Tsanga, Lescuyer and Cerutti 2014). change. World Development, 33 (1): 129-147.
The FSC’s emergence helped mediate the Tsanga R., Lescuyer G., and Cerutti, P. 2014. What
tenuous situation generated by frequent clashes is the role for forest certification in improving
between corporations and the affected populations. relationships between logging companies
However, the FSC brand has also had to wrestle with and communities? Lessons from FSC in
credibility issues. This became evident with the Cameroon. International Forestry Review,
emergence of an organisation called ‘FSC watch’ 16 (1): 14-22.
arguing false certification by FSC even when the
produce did not meet the required criteria. Against The author is a lawyer at the Delhi High Court.
this backdrop, the need of the hour for FSC is to [email protected]
Farmers’ suicide
By Staff RepoRteR
By Dipanjan Ghosh
LIVING
ROOT BRIDGE
Living tree bridges that one finds in picturesque Meghalaya
are called Jingkieng Deingjri meaning ‘bridge of the rubber tree’
in Khasi. Tree bridges are natural structures that are examples
of bioengineering at its best.
the roots of the rubber tree are trained to grow in a specific way to form the structure of the bridge, Wahthyllong village in
the East khasi hills.
the weight of more than fifty people at a time. The country offers us many incredible objects and facts.
live aerial roots of rubber tree contain a reason- In every nook and corner of our country, some
able amount of mechanical tissues such as xylem, amazing facts are waiting to be discovered. Living
phloem, sclerenchyma and prosenchyma tissues root bridges are one such legacy that are absolutely
and at the same time they are in a state of continual unique in structure and growth.
growth, gaining more strength with time. The
elasticity of the root tissues of rubber tree also references
increases the tensile strength of the bridge. Allen T. 2011. Living Root Bridges. BBC Human
The chief advantage of a living root bridge is that Planet. Available at: http://humanplanet.com/
it does not get washed away by strong currents timothyallen/2011/03/living-root-bridges-bbc-
or by the rain—but remains permanent. It can human-planet/.
withstand high levels of soil erosion during the Atlas obscura. The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji.
monsoon on one side, and on the other are capable Available at: http://www.atlasobscura.com/
of resisting termite attacks that often destroy places/root-bridges-cherrapunji.
wooden bridges. Dubal H. 2016. Living Root Bridges – Meghalaya.
The longest known living root bridge is near Available at: http://timeloop.in/bonvoyage/user/
the Pynursla village in East Khasi Hills— span- article/101.
ning a length of 50 m with a width of over 1.5 Indiamarks. Unique Living Bridge of Cherrapunji,
m. While the oldest one is Ummunoi, placed at a India. Available at: http://www.indiamarks.
height of 426 m. com/unique-living-bridge-cherrapunji-india/.
We share
because
we care
l Coal India Limited producing over 81 per cent of the nation’s entire
coal production is conscious of its commitment to the countrymen
and touches the lives of people in more ways than one.
l Constructed 53,142 toilets (nearly 36 per cent constructed by all
CPSEs) in six states spreading over 100 districts of the country.
l Built ‘Premashraya’ a 525 bedded outpatient home with palliative
care facilities as an extension to Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata.
l Actively involved in holistic development of villages in
backward districts.
l Set up Kabi Guru Industrial Training Centre equipped with
latest infrastructure to impart quality training and skill
development to the youth.