Category: Agriculture

** TNJFU celebrates Republic Day by presenting awards of excellence

Dr. M.G.R. Fisheries College adjudged the Best Performing Institute

Presentation of awards of excellence marked the 73rd Republic Day celebration at the Tamil Nadu Dr. Jayalalithaa Fisheries University, on Wednesday.

Unfurling the tricolour Vice-Chancellor G. Sugumar presented the Best Teacher award to F. Parthiban, and Young Researcher Award to D. Kesavan and Mir Ishafaq Nazir.

The Best Extension Worker award was presented to V. Kannan of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sikkal and the Best Non-teaching Staff awards were given to M. Vasantha Kumari and P. Sumathi.

The Dr. M.G.R. Fisheries College and Research Institute was adjudged the Best Performing Institute for 2020-21.

** Two new plant species discovered in Ghats

Researchers from SNM College Maliankara, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and the Payyanur College have reported two new plant species from the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats regions in Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad districts.

They have been christened Fimbristylis sunilii and Neanotis prabhuii, and the findings by the research teams have been detailed in the November and December issues of the plant taxonomy journal Phytotaxa.

Collected from the grasslands of Ponmudi hills, Thiruvananthapuram, Fimbristylis sunilii has been named after plant taxonomist C.N. Sunil, retired professor and research guide of Botany, SNM College.

Neanotis prabhuii is a prostrate perennial herb named after K.M. Prabhukumar, Senior Scientist at CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow, in recognition of his research on flowering plants of the Western Ghats and contributions to biodiversity conservation.

** Project to map rare plants in Parambikulam

Over 1,400 species of angiosperms in reserve

The Parambikulam Tiger Conservation Foundation will join hands with the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) to prepare a detailed mapping of the rare and endangered plants endemic to the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.

The mapping survey would begin soon, said Parambikulam Tiger Reserve deputy director Vysak Sasikumar. He said it was time to update the inventory of the rare plant species that brought glory to the reserve.

KFRI’s senior silviculturist P. Sujanapal will lead the mapping.

Kerala

** IIT (ISM) Innovation hub develops lac scrapping machine

IIT (ISM)’s innovation hub – Atal Community Innovation Center (ACIC), has taken into account the difficulties faced by lac growers in manually scraping lac from sticlac. They have developed a lac scrapping machine

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Amit Shukla, Chief Executive Officer ACIC  at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad said “Jharkhand produces almost half of the total quantity of lac produced in India. Jharkhand’s share makes India the world’s top lac producer.”

** The ‘dragon’ woman of Behar Jaswan

It is only this year that Sood has been able to take her message of medicinal farming to the common farmer with the help of the district administration.

The ground under Behar Jaswan Panchayat was actually prepared for medicinal plants by Reeva Sood, who loves to be called a woman agro entrepreneur. In her heart she carries love for medicinal farming and Himachal Pradesh — based in Delhi, she came all the way to do medicinal farming in the hilly state — and in her eyes she carries a dream of turning this area into a dragon valley. Dragon is an exotic fruit. She has planted 3,000 saplings of this fruit here.

** Indian wheat to feed Afghans on the brink of starvation

This is the first time India does not have its feet on the ground in Afghanistan, as it evacuated all diplomats in August.

India’s decision to send 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines to Afghanistan through the Wagah border in Pakistan without conditionalities marks the first tangible engagement with the Taliban ever since it captured Kabul in August last.

By doing so, India is walking the talk on providing humanitarian aid to the nation that became a basket case following crippling sanctions and an international freeze on its assets. UN estimates suggest about 55% of the Afghan population, which would work out to about 22.8 million people, face food insecurity this winter.

** Susanta Kumar Dash: Geneticist on a mission to register Odisha’s native livestock breeds

A professor of OUAT and animal geneticist, Susanta Kumar Dash has helped govt in registering 4 native breeds of cattle, 3 breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, writes Sudarsan Maharana.

In the last two decades, animal geneticist Susanta Kumar Dash has helped Odisha register eight of its native livestock breeds and secure their Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Working in the field of native livestock breed conservation since 2004, Dash – a professor in the department of animal breeding and genetics in OUAT, Bhubaneswar – has registered four breeds of cattle, three breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, all having their own unique features, from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. 

** New species found in Sikkim’s Dzongu, the ‘land of butterflies’

When Sonam Wangchuk Lepcha, from Dzongu in north Sikkim, started watching butterflies and taking pictures of them, he was not taken very seriously by the people around him. But now his hobby has led to the discovery of a new butterfly species, whose closest relatives are in southeastern China, close to Hong Kong.

** Udupi: Bantakal Engineering students win prizes in National Level Event ‘IEEE- EUREKA 2021’

The students of Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management Bantakal have won first, second and third prize in ‘IEEE-EUREKA 2021’, a national level event organized by the IEEE Pune section.

Stream 1: ‘Technologies for Environment, Climate Change and Natural disasters’ Team: Aniketh Shenoy, Anjali Shet, M Sowmitha Pai, Vikram G Thunga. (First Prize)

Stream 2: ‘Technologies for Rural Development and Woman Welfare’ Team: S Sinchana, Shreya Nayak, Vaishak Prabhu, Vivek Shenoy. (First Prize)

Stream 3: ‘Technologies for Agriculture and Food Processing’ Team: Shriraksha, Ramya Deshpande, Shreya M Thantry, Rahamathunnisa. (Second Prize)

Stream 1: ‘Technologies for Environment, Climate Change and Natural disasters’ Team: Sarvesh S P, Varalakshmi, Varshini Acharya, Yashaswini R Amin.