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Cattle Play Vital Role In Economic Development’

November 29, 2009 by ·

cattle play vital role_Cattle play an important role in rural economic development and hence cattle breeders should take extra care about their health advised taluk Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department Assistant Director Dr Ramanand.

He was speaking after inaugurating the free check up camp for unyielding  cows, on Saturday, at Yadarur village, organised by the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.
He also informed that the department is supporting the feed and health of the cattle. It has also distributed seeds to grow greens for cattle feed and invited beneficiaries to utilise the facilities.

Veterinary doctors Dr R Nagabhushan Reddy, Dr Prem Kumar, Dr Manjunath Reddy, Dr Beerappa, senior veterinary examiner M Ramakrishna participated.  As many as 116 unyielding cows were treated at the camp. Also 438 sheep and 219 goats were administered de-worming medicine.  Lectures were also delivered to farmers. Deccan Herald

Filed Under: Agriculture, Animal Disease, Economy ·

GM Crops May Ease Drain On Soil – Researchers

October 30, 2009 by ·

gm crops may ease drain on soil_The world needs genetically modified crops both to increase food yields and minimize the environmental impact of farming, Britain’s top science academy said on Wednesday. The Royal Society said in a report the world faced a “grand challenge” to feed another 2.3 billion people by 2050 and at the same time limit the environmental impact of the farm sector.

The world will have to increase food output by 70 percent and invest $83-billion annually in developing countries by mid-century, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation said earlier this month. “The problem is such an acute one, doing that sustainably without eroding soil, overusing fertilisers is an enormous challenge,” said the chair of the Royal Society report, Cambridge University’s David Baulcombe.

“There isn’t a lot more land to use,” he told Reuters. “And from the point of expense and using fossil fuels, we want to use less fertiliser.” “The food supply problem is likely to come to a head 10, 20, 30 years from now,” he said, adding this didn’t leave much time given the research lead time to develop new crops.

The answer would be a range of approaches from hi-tech genetically modified crops to low-tech management approaches such as sowing grass around maize to divert pests, as well as preserving the diversity of natural, wild crop varieties.

Farming indirectly, including deforestation, accounts for a third of greenhouse gases, say scientists, underlining the problem of increasing production simply by clearing more land or using more fertilisers, the biggest source of a powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

Britain had to invest an extra 50 to 100 million pounds annually in research to boost innovation in a sector which had lost allure following food over-supply in Europe, the report said. A combination of changing diets, growing population, demand for farmland for biofuels and high energy prices have stoked food prices and renewed interest in agriculture.
Wednesday’s report invoked the successes of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, but aimed for a more sustainable approach. That revolution had more than doubled food output over 30 years but had also degraded soils in some cases. The world must develop over the next 16 years through genetic modification and conventional breeding varieties of crops resistant to disease, drought, salinity, heat and toxic heavy metals, the report said.

Progress in DNA-sequencing had made more plant genes available for engineering, improving the predictability of results in a “second generation” GM approach. “We’re looking at a different base than 10 years ago,” said Baulcombe. A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than one billion people into hunger in 2009, UN agencies said last week, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.

The Pressure group Greenpeace said GM crops were a costly distraction from tackling hunger through fighting poverty and helping smallholders in developing countries sell their product. “Poverty and hunger are the same thing,” said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace’s European GM policy director, who pointed out that the world already produced enough to feed itself, if that were shared fairly and there was less waste.  By Gerard Wynn, Independent Online

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crop Protection, Ecology ·

Agriculture Technology Should Be Affordable To Small Farmers

October 5, 2009 by ·

agriculture_The technology for agriculture sector should be sustainable and affordable to small farmers too, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Agriculture, T. Nandakumar, said here on Friday.

Inaugurating Agri Intex, the annual agriculture exhibition organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, he said, “Agriculture should be recognised as a knowledge sector that would adopt high level of technology. And, this technology should be affordable to small farmers.”

Mechanisation should improve efficiency and productivity. Indigenous machinery should be designed and developed for agriculture and horticulture as it would not be possible to import all the machinery for these sectors.

With increasing income levels, the demand for different varieties of food also went up. The demand for fruits, vegetables and processed fruits was increasing. So, the country had to produce these raw materials. “We need more food, feed and fibre,” he said.

Some of the constraints in producing these were limited availability of land, less water, variability in water availability and the impact of climate change. Technology was a solution to the problems faced by the sector. The research activities taken up in universities should reach the farm. There should be a strong connect between research and farmers. Analysis of soil health, macro and micro management of water, investment in technology and infrastructure to handle the agriculture produce were all important aspects.

The urban Indian families were moving towards processed food and this segment would probably grow at a faster rate now than it had earlier. For this, the production should have definite quality standards. The food processing industry should understand the problems and needs of farmers and try to support extension activities, he said.

P. Murugesa Boopathy, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said the seed replacement rate (SRR) achieved for rice was around 60 per cent. For pulses and oil seeds the SRR achieved was low. To improve the SRR, the university had taken up seed production in 32 centres for about 175 varieties.

Sugarcane cultivation was one area where mechanisation was required. The TNAU had displayed at the Agri Intex sugarcane harvesters purchased from Thailand. The university was also concentrating more on domestic and export market intelligence. It collected the market price for 152 commodities from 13 markets in South India and published these on its website www.tnau.ac.in and www.indg.in by 1. p.m.

S.V. Balasubramaniam, Chairman of the Bannari Amman Group of Companies, said that in 2008-2009 the country received almost 23 per cent low rains. The purchasing power of people was high and population was growing. So, the food needs were also going up. “We need to encourage agriculture to meet these demands,” he said. Global warming was a major challenge, he said.

K. Ilango, president of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, said though India was a growing economy with development in several sectors, many people were still dependent on agriculture. The Agri Intex was started in 2000 and was conducted almost every year. The focus this year was on technology.

D. Balasundaram, Chairman of Agri-Intex 2009, said the exhibition had over 200 stalls occupying nearly 2,600 sq m.

The fair would be on at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex till October 5. The Hindu.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crop Protection, Technologies ·