There is no improvement in River Indus flows at Gudu Barrage and position has worsened with inflow in Indus at Tarbela being only 20,300 cusecs while Tarbela storage diminished and attained the dead

Speakers at a conference here have stressed the need for conducting more research on crop diversity to ensure food security.

AS BILLBOARDS across Chhattisgarh hardsell the state government's Rs 771-crore food security scheme envisaging distribution of rice at Rs 3 per kg to 34 lakh poor households, CM Ram Singh has embarked on an equally ambitious mission: Monitoring its execution right down to the level of the PDS outlet. It's a tech-savvy monitoring plan, involving not only SMS and internet alerts on availability and supply positions to the beneficiary families and panchayat members of the targeted villages, but also retro-fitting of rice-transporting trucks with GPS devices to track their journey from the godowns to the PDS outlets. Thrown in are a toll-free number

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world. At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, Jos

ABOUT 200 acres of land in the Boro Beel area at village Ratugram under Durgapur upazila in Rajshahi remained uncultivated for the last several years due to water-logging. Local people said the water stagnancy created in the bil due to closure of the water drainage channels, depriving local farmers from cultivating crops. The huge land of the water body remains under water every year because of floods and heavy downpour in the rainy season in the absence of sewage outlet, local farmers said. Earlier, two canals were dug in the southern and northern sides to drain out water from the bil. But several influential local people filled up the canals with earth in 1997 and started cultivation of onion, IRRI paddy on the land, creating water stagnancy in the bil area. Many farmers of Ratugram, Kayamajampur, Badail and Ujalkalsi villages have their land in the bil and are being deprived of cultivating crops. The farmers said the authorities concerned should take initiatives for re-excavating the closed canals. 'If the authorities take immediate step, we could cultivate boro paddy on our land during the current season,' said a farmer.

A large number of growers staged demonstrations for the second consecutive day on Monday in Thari Mirwah, Faiz Ganj and Kotdiji talukas in protest against shortage of irrigation water. In Thari Mirwah, the protesting growers and their leaders Mehmood Phull and Gul Mohammad said that there was no water in Mirwah Canal in the crucial months of February and March when wheat crop highly depended on water.They were force to make alternate arrangements for watering their crops through private tube-wells even though they had to pay abiyana (water tax) as well. Growers in Faiz Ganj said during a demonstration that their taluka was at the tail-end of Mirwah Canal, hence it received very little water. There was no water in the canals and minors of the taluka. Mohammad Sachal, Aijaz Hussain and Mir Mohammad Brohi told journalists that the irrigation system had collapsed due to shortage of water since last 15 years. In Kotdiji, growers led by the general secretary of Abadgars Ittehad, Faqir Niaz Bhambhro, staged a demonstration and said that the shortage would also affect the production of banana and mangoes besides wheat crop. A delegation of civil society and growers of Khairpur led by general secretary of Khairpur District Bar Association Abdul Qayoom Shaikh also protested on Monday. They said that Khairpur and its adjoining towns including Kotdiji, Kot Bungalow and Hussainabad had no drinking water due to closure of irrigation channels.

Lost for whether to boil, steam or fry? Savvy Soumya Mishra finds out THE current dieting fad is that food, when eaten raw, is healthy. But there is now a study that shows that there are foods that are more nutritious when cooked. Researchers in Italy studied preparation methods of three vegetables