Editorial  

Who is watching out for agriculture? (Click and read online)

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Lead Story -  Climate Change and Agriculture :Reinventing the crop cycle

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Increasing temperatures, shifting rain patterns and frequency of  extreme weather spells threaten global food systems. The new buzz phrase is ‘climate proofing of crops’. Read more.... Subscription required

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FAQs - Climate Change Simplified

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What is climate change?

Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of climate, such as temperature, precipitation, or wind.

Why is the climate changing?

The consensus view of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) and more than 2,000 reputable scientists from across the world is that most of the warming seen since the middle of the last century is due to human activities. Read complete.. Subscription required

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Climate Change : Adapting climate change

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For the world's poorest communities, climate change can prove to be catastrophic as they lose livelihoods and possibly even their homes. For many communities, the direction of climate change remains uncertain, so there is a need to increase their adaptive capacity in key sectors such as agriculture. To lessen the impact of climate change on a country's development, people are working to integrate adaptation strategies into mainstream development policies. Read complete

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Climate Change : Reviving traditional rainwater harvesting systems

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Over thousands of years, people living in various geo-graphical and climatic regions of the world have evolved indigenous regimes of rainwater harvesting and management as an adaptation to climate change.  Read complete

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Climate Change : Need to buffer rainfed agriculture

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Over In India, rainfed agriculture in semiarid and sub-humid regions comprising of 177 districts where crop production is exclusively dependent upon rainfall is vulnerable to climate change.  Read complete                                                                       |Top|

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Food Security - Global food crisis and India

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Recently Jacques Diouf, Director General of FAO, commented that “the world food situation is very serious today with food riots reported from many countries like Egypt, Cameroon, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Bangladesh; the world has just about enough cereal stocks to feed the global population for two to three months.” Read complete.. Subscription required

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Food Security - India's concerns on farm negotiations in the WTO

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) has come out with ambitious 'Revised draft Modalities' to break the deadlock on Agriculture negotiation. On May 19, 2008 and very recently on July 10, 2008, a sort of blueprint for the final deal containing formulas for cutting tariffs and trade distorting subsidies and related provisions in agricultural trade was issued. Subscription required

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Legally Speaking - Imperatives for a no-fault, strict liability regime for GM crops

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National and international legal regimes generally have three standards of liability for damage caused, which are fault-based, strict and absolute. Fault-based liability requires that the damage be caused by some willful or negligent act of the person responsible for the damage. On the other hand, the rules of both strict and absolute liability make the defendant liable for accidental harm caused, without any intention and negligence on his part. ...Read complete

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Bioresources : GE trees: solution or threat?

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While industry groups lobby for GE trees because of their faster growth rate, conservationists oppose any plan to release GE into the environment saying it could be disastrous for natural forests and may exacerbate global warming. Subscription required

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GM Zone

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FRANCE’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT UPHOLDS GMO LAW:

France’s Constitutional Council recently approved the main points of a law on GM crops after opposition had demanded a review. The opposition-- Socialists and environmentalists -- argued that the Bill does not make a distinction between natural and GM organisms and had sought a complete overhaul of the law. Read more...Subscription required

NOW, INDIAN BT COTTON:

India’s own Bt Cotton is all set to storm the fields next year with the Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research coming up with the desi version seeds. Cotton farmers in the country will get the Indian variety of Bt Cotton from 2009, which the can reuse like any other variety. Read more...Subscription required                             |Top|

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Biofuels Uptate

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Race on for second generation biofuels

Some of the most commonly recommended species for biofuels production are also major invasive alien species and should be studied more thoroughly before being cultivated in new areas... Read complete

INDIAN BIOFUELS MARKET:

In 2002, India ranked fifth highest in the world for energy consumption, which “has forced India to depend on other countries for fuel (oil), increasing the risk exposure of the country to the volatility of crude oil prices in the international market.” ..Read complete

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Policy : Towards a genomics policy

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Taking into considerations, the recommendations of the executive course on genomics and the recent findings of the project on Indian genome, the framework of policy on genomics can be worked out by the policymakers. Read more ... 

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Stem Cell Update

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• Reprogramming technique for producing pluripotent stem cells

  Starting from the year 2006, when the first case of reprogramming was reported by Japanese scientists, researchers could take away the attention from the controversial technique of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) for some time. This technique enabled the scientists to produce stem cells from non-embryonic sources and so lessened worry about the ethical issues.

• HEART FROM STEM CELLS:

Embryonic stem cells have created considerable excitement because of their potential to become almost any specialised cell type. Now researchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work at building the heart. Read complete

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Science News

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• GENETIC VARIATIONS ENHANCES RISK FOR TOBACCO ADDICTION:

  Common genetic variations affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system can significantly increase the chance that European Americans who begin smoking by age 17 will struggle with lifelong nicotine addiction, according to a new study.

• NEW VACCINE FOR DEADLY DISEASES:

Researchers have developed new vaccines to protect against West Nile and Japanese encephalitis viruses, as reported in the journal Vaccine. Currently approved flavivirus vaccines are either "live-attenuated virus" vaccines, which contain weakened but still genetically intact versions of the target virus, or "inactivated-virus" vaccines, which contain viruses that have been chemically neutralised.  Read complete

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Genetics : Cisgenesis: simpler mode of gene transfer

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Crossing and mutation are the commonly used techniques of classical breeding. Plant varieties can also be improved through genetic modification. The current GM technology provides transgenics products from genetic modification process in which genes are derived from non-crossable species. These transgenics pose a number of risks and their use especially in the developing countries has been controversial. Read more ...          |Top|