With the rains gone, farmers in Dagana are estimating the damage caused by heavy and continuous rain last month, which include cultivated paddy fields, maize crops, irrigation channels and citrus mandarin (orange) trees.
Melting Himalayan glaciers and other climate change impacts pose a direct threat to the water and food security of more than 1.6 billion people in South Asia, according to preliminary findings of a new study financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Climate change threatens to bring food and water shortages to 1.6 billion people in South Asia, with the region's poorest likely to be worst hit, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said here Wednesday. New research commissioned by the ADB shows that if current climate trends persist until 2050, maize yields in South Asia will fall by 17 percent, wheat by 12 percent and rice by 10 percent.
THE NCP-manned food ministry is yet to work out the increase in demand for foodgrain in the public distribution system (PDS) on account of drought and deficient rainfall. Last week, officials of the food ministry made a presentation before the estimates committee of Parliament, giving details about the foodgrain situation and projections of both demand and production.
Poor crop yields, water shortages and more extreme temperatures are pushing rural villagers in Nepal closer to the brink as a result of climate change, a new report launched Oxfam, an international aid agency, aid, describing the situation "deeply worrying".
Shreekant Sambrani / New Delhi August 29, 2009, 0:25 IST
A toxic brew of subsidies and loan waivers has ensured farmers become dependent upon government dole instead of reacting to market forces, says Shreekant Sambrani.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Wednesday and demanded a special package of Rs 2,000 crore in addition to a drought relief of Rs 100 per quintal for paddy and Rs 50 per quintal for maize over and above the MSP. Badal said the PM has promised to look into his demands.
Researchers in Japan have identified a gene that allows rice plants to fight off a fungal disease called blast, which may open the way for farmers to cultivate hardier plants.
Using genetic sequencing, they were also able to separate the gene, Pi21, from a nearby gene that is associated with a "poor flavor," they wrote in a paper published in Science.
