Irrigation of fertile plains of Punjab and Haryana has benefited the nation with increase in food production, there have been inevitable side effects, in terms of secular degradation of the soil productivity, due to the exacerbating problem of waterlogging and salinization of soils, which now affects thousands of hectares of agricultural land.
The mighty river Brahmaputra and its tributaries are filled with rain water during monsoon season, which often creates moderate to severe flood situation in Assam. This is also the peak season of multiplication of a particular half-moon shaped snail species locally known as Junai samuk.
Based on six indices, the warm subhumid to cool-humid Western Himalayan Region, consisting of the Kashmir valley, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, could be designated as an Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Site. This region is rich in agro-biodiversity, with a large number of species being cultivated.
Rainfall prediction has prime importance in an agrarian country like India, wherein the agricultural production is solely dependent on the monsoon rainfall. Among various astro-meteorological methods for rainfall forecasting, the Antariksha method, which is based on sky observations, is most popular.
The 150th birth anniversary of one of the greatest physicists of India, Sir JC Bose was celebrated in 2008. His paper "On the similarity of effect of electric stimulus on inorganic and living substances" presented in 1900 in Paris, France remains a classic today. Bose's studies refelected Vedic thoughts.
Maize is grown in every suitable agricultural region of the globe. In India, maize is grown on 6 million ha area mainly as rainfed crop during rainy season and only 22.8% maize is grown under irrigated conditions. In this article, the authors have examined simple indigenous technologies that are beneficial to maize crop production under stress conditions.
Forests and women are strongly interconnected with each other because women, particularly those living in rural areas or mountain areas, have a deep relationship with the forest ecology because they are responsible for gathering food, fuel, fodder, leaves and water for the family.
Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is one of the most important crops grown in the hilly regions of Meghalaya state in Northeast India. Land preparation for potato cultivation is carried out in an indigenous or traditional way, locally called Nur Bun method. "Nur" is the agricultural land unit in the local Khasi language and refers to one raised bed, which is usually 1-1.25 m wide and 2-7 m long.
The changing global scenario and the amendment of national legislations on ownership over biological resources and intellectual property rights over the indigenous knowledge evolved by the local communities for the useful exploitation of these resources, demands that agricultural biodiversity and indigenous knowledge rich countries like India identify the agricultural heritage sites and document t
Gujarat state of India receives annual rainfall of 828 mm in 35 rainy days with coefficient of variation of 50%. Considering the abnormality of weather particularly rainfall during the monsoon, Anand Agricultural University (AAU), Anand, Gujarat has prepared almanac predicting district-wise daily rainfall during monsoon 2007 for beneficiaries for the farming community as well as planners.
