A drought-tolerant maize seed has been launched to boost food security in African countries.

ON the surface, it was a typical fortnight in India's debate on genetically modified (gm) crops. Right after the International Rice Congress in Delhi promoted the benefits of transgenic rice, a plot

• Notified varieties are developed and tested through multi-location trials by the All India Coordinated Crop Improvement Programme. If the varieties are found to be superior, the Central Seed Committee (CSC) releases them through notification in the official gazette
• Nucleus seeds are the pure genetic material of a notified variety produced by a breeder. These are multiplied into breeder seeds

how about a link between plant diseases and interplanetary gravity? Researchers from Penn State University and the University of Virginia, tried to explain just that. Their study shows that the spread of plant diseases can be described by equations that model interplanetary gravity. It was published online in The American Naturalist's website.

India co ordinator of irri, talks to Down To Earth, on India s role in the new rice research order

India will host the second International Rice Congress from October 9-13 in New Delhi. This is the most important event in the calendar of rice research since the International Year of Rice in 2004.

controlling agricultural pests through their natural predators is environmentally preferable to using pesticides, which contaminate the soil, groundwater and even the food grown. However, raising