The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils has completed the first State of the World's Soil Resources Report. Globally soil erosion was identified as the gravest threat, leading to deteriorating water quality in developed regions and to lowering of crop yields in many developing regions. We need to increase nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer use in infertile tropical and semi-tropical soils – the regions where the most food insecurity among us are found – while reducing global use of these products overall.

This report is based on the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households conducted in the 70th round of NSS during January 2013 to December 2013. The survey, conducted in the rural areas of the country with its two visits, was spread over 4529 villages covering 35200 households.

Countries where agriculture is a major economic activity have greater room for improving key regulations that govern the agribusiness sector says this new World Bank report. 

Rice is consumed by half of the world’s population. It is a model monocotyledonous crop. In this communication, the effect of 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) on the growth, yield attributes and yield is elaborated. Results show that NAA, a synthetic auxin, when applied in spray influences the life cycle of rice via metabolic processes to manifest beneficially through translocating assimilates from source to sink, and hence the yield.

Original Source

Horticultural Statistics at a Glance 2015 is the premier publication of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, which serves as an authentic source of data on various aspects of horticultural crops of India. The publication presents a comprehensive picture of the Indian horticulture sector by using statistical data across states, districts and time periods, covering diverse aspects such as area, production, productivity, growth trends, percentage share, value of output and so on for major horticultural crops.

The negative effect of increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) pollution on grassland biodiversity is now incontrovertible. However, the recent introduction of cleaner technologies in the UK has led to reductions in the emissions of nitrogen oxides, with concomitant decreases in N deposition. The degree to which grassland biodiversity can be expected to ‘bounce back’ in response to these improvements in air quality is uncertain, with a suggestion that long-term chronic N addition may lead to an alternative low biodiversity state.

Biochar, a carbon-rich, porous pyrolysis product of organic residues may positively affect plant yield and can, owing to its inherent stability, promote soil carbon sequestration when amended to agricultural soils. Another possible effect of biochar is the reduction in emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O). A number of laboratory incubations have shown significantly reduced N2O emissions from soil when mixed with biochar.

Original Source

The paddy-wheat monoculture induced a decelerating agricultural trend in Punjab which has been felt in the form of stagnation in output, deteriorating productivity, environmental degradation, declining farm incomes, depeasantization and suicides by farmers.

Twenty years ago, the first genetically modified (GM) crops were planted in the USA, alongside dazzling promises about this new technology. Two decades on, the promises are getting bigger and bigger, but GM crops are not delivering any of them.

Anthropogenic nutrient flows exceed the planetary boundaries. The boundaries and the current excesses vary spatially. Such variations have both an ecological and a social facet. We explored the spatial variation using a bottom-up approach. The local critical boundaries were determined through the current or accumulated flow of the preceding five years before the planetary boundary criteria were met. Finland and Ethiopia served as cases with contrasting ecology and wealth. The variation in excess depends on historical global inequities in the access to nutrients.

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