Soil Salinity and carbon sequestration
Dear All,
Good day!
When microplastics enter the soil ecosystem, they can persist for long periods, accumulating over time. Here are a few ways in which microplastics can impact soil health:
Educating society about the danger of plastic/microplastic pollution is essential for sustainable land management. Recently we organised one Webinar on Soil vs. Plastics, as part of World Food Day celebration that helped the audience better understand the emerging problem of microplastic pollution in soil as well as possible solutions, recording of which may be found in the following link:
Soil vs. Plastics webinar recording (Click Here)
And the report can be found in following link:
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear FSN Team,
Good afternoon!
The following measures are suggested to ensure food security and sustainability:
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear FSN Team,
Good morning!
Demand and supply of agricultural commodity, in general, are not very responsive to price changes, price volatility is strong in short run. The geopolitical and climatological unpredictability adds to significant price volatility. The following measures are suggested to reduce price volatility:
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear FSN Members and others,
Good evening from India!
Kindly find below the comments w.r.t. point no. 10 about citizen engagement vis-a-vis capacity building:
Capacity building - at both individual and institutional level, greater involvement of private sector through Public Private Partnership and better awareness is important. Top-down anti-corruption practices and national level approaches to improving accountability mechanisms have often failed in fragile and conflict-affected situations. In contrast, identifying and supporting local accountability mechanisms, strengthening partnerships, and supporting collaborative governance and capacity building has been shown to be more effective in these contexts. The accountability triangle involving Citizen, Policymakers and Public Private Partnership provides a way to understand successes and failures along the service delivery chain by analyzing the relationships between policymakers/politicians, service providers and citizens.
With warm regards
Dear All,
Good Day!
This is just to add a little more to the great effort of SFS draft 1.0.
Interconnected policy-making: Enabling decisions related to sustainable food system together with agriculture and its products marketing, labour laws, land holding, rural development etc.
The above is just what I could conceptualised on my own.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good evening from India!
Agro-ecological zoning separates areas into the region at the apex level and agro-eco unit at the bottom. The agro-ecological region identifies the natural resources in terms of problems, potentialities and constraints and their extent with respect to land utilization types and groups them in uniform units. Digital database in GIS and application of logic through decision support system (DSS) further enhance the process and precession of agro-ecological delineation. The sub agro ecological regions are further subdivided into agro-ecological zones based on landforms, soil association and land use. The agro ecological zones have further taken down to sub zones depending on terrain characteristics, parent materials, soil texture, depth, salinity, surface and ground water potentiality and cropping pattern.
Also we may think for overlaying vulnerability map with such agro ecological zones to create polygons in GIS and use the same to predict food security as well as systems need to be followed in long run for food sustainability.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
I would like to provide the following info:
Traditional Knowledge based Solution to address water scarcity: Climate change is a defining moment of our time with major negative implications on ecology, human culture, livelihoods and food security. The IPCC advocates to search local solutions for climate change adaptations; however, its report does not recognize the breadth and strength of century tested traditional knowledge in combating climate change. Major water concerns are (1) Most critical resource for Indian agriculture; (2) The resource is shrinking; (3) Increased competition from other sectors; (4) Decline in water table; (5) Water-logging and salinity; (6) Increased pollution; (7) Environmental change to affect availability; and (8) Reduction in river flow. The emerging scenario from different parts of the globe suggests that neither the scientific technologies alone nor the traditional knowledge exclusively can completely solve the threats of food and nutritional security challenges emanating from climate change, however, a fusion of the two can. Traditional Knowledge can be defined as the collectively owned non-formal intellectual property comprised wisdom, knowledge and teaching developed by local and indigenous communities over time in response to the needs of their specific local environment and integral to the cultural or spiritual identity of the social group in which it operates, preserved and many-a-time orally transmitted for generations. Traditional water management practices include Stone Bunding, Stones-cum-Earthen Bunding, Stone-cum-Vegetative bunding, Brushwood Waste Weir, Grassed Waterways and Spur Structure. The planners and policy makers have yet another tool and dimension to initiate participatory action plan involving tribal farmers and their rich reserve of traditional knowledge in order to develop adoptable technology that will enable mitigation of water scarcity and problem of climate change for financial inclusion and mainstreaming of indigenous population. The study described in the paper conclusively proved that planners and policy makers have yet another tool and dimension to initiate participatory action plan involving tribal farmers and their rich reserve of traditional knowledge in order to develop adoptable technology that will enable mitigation of water scarcity amd problem of climate change for financial inclusion and mainstreaming of indigenous population. Moreover, region-specific amalgamated technological prescriptions refined with targeted policy analysis are required for effective implementation and obtaining positive outcomes within a finite time horizon.
Reference: Dey, P. and Sarkar, A.K. (2011). Revisiting indigenous farming knowledge of Jharkhand (India) for conservation of natural resources and combating climate change. Indian J. Traditional Knowledge 10(1): 71-79.
http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/sites/default/files/discussions/contributio…
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Management of Potassium (K) bearing fertilisers requires to consider the following approach:
Balancing external application of potassium (K) fertilizers and utilization of soil reserve K is an important aspect of plant K-nutrition as rapid depletion of soil reserve K has negative consequences on soil quality and crop productivity. The critical limit of exchangeable K varies for soil to soil and crop to crop although K-rating limits are irrespective of crops or soils. Moreover, supply of soil K to plants is a complex phenomenon involving dynamic equilibrium among its various chemical forms. The K response in vertisols is often anomalous. These limits in Vertisols are not only higher but differ considerably from crop to crop and location to location. It was found the range of critical limit as 451-799 kg/ha, the lowest being for oilseed crops and highest for vegetable crops. The critical limits obtained from LTFE experiments is at around 315 kg K/ha for some Vertisols. The higher critical limits from soil test crop response experiments are because of the higher yield targets taken in calculating the critical limits. Such higher yield targets are seldom obtained in LTFE trials. Also, there is a difference in the way the calculations are made. The critical limit for rice is 553 kg/ha (range 250-796 kg/ha). There is ample opportunity to increase rice yield in Vertisols if K fertilization is done based on soil test. Experiments done under AICRP (STCR) have shown that the fertilizer K requirement is 34 kg K2O/ha at a soil test value of 350 kg/ha for achieving the yield target of 50-60 q/ha for rice, and this requirement changes to 26 kg, and 19 kg if the soil test values are 400, and 450 kg/ha, respectively. Wheat requires almost similar K fertilization as rice. The K fertilizer requirement for maize crop is much less though. It is only 16 kg K2O/ha at a soil test value of 400 kg/ha and 11 kg K2O/ha at a soil test value of 350 kg/ha. The recommendations for cotton is 38 kg K2O/ha. The K requirement is very high in Maharashtra, and almost nil in Karnataka. Such results are difficult to interpret only on the basis of exchangeable K. Vertisols have also been categorized on the basis of non-exchangeable K content.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Risk allocation and way forward for successful multistakeholder partnership, engagement and delivery towards food security and nutrition in the face of climate change
In dealing with the challenge of food security and nutrition, countries must act on several fronts in a focused manner simultaneously. One of approach to address the issue is public private partnership (PPP) mode wherein wherein the contractual parties are the public and private partners and the purpose of the document is to govern and establish guidelines for the relationship between all parties. The objective from the public sector point of view is to make sure that the risks are allocated so that the private sector is incentivized to provide the service under the PPP contract but not require the private sector to take risks that they cannot control. The private sector attaches a premium on the risks, which affects the cost of their services. Consequently, the public authority must also consider which risks it will retain because it is able to control these risks more cost effectively. The National Action Plan for food security and nutrition hinges on the development and use of new technologies. The implementation of the Plan would be through appropriate institutional mechanisms suited for effective delivery of each individual Mission's objectives and include public private partnerships and civil society action. The focus will be on promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency and natural resource conservation. Lenders are required in many PPP arrangements, such as concession agreements, to finance the capital investments of a project.
Strategies need to be adopted for active citizen engagement
Capacity building - at both individual and institutional level, greater involvement of private sector through Public Private Partnership and better awareness is important. Top-down anti-corruption practices and national level approaches to improving accountability mechanisms have often failed in fragile and conflict-affected situations. In contrast, identifying and supporting local accountability mechanisms, strengthening partnerships, and supporting collaborative governance and capacity building has been shown to be more effective in these contexts. The accountability triangle involving Citizen, Policymakers and Public Private Partnership provides a way to understand successes and failures along the service delivery chain by analyzing the relationships between policymakers/politicians, service providers and citizens.
Suggested steps for effective implementation of food security and nutrition strategy
Preliminary risk assessment on food security and nutrition:
An initial risk assessment need to be conducted based on secondary data. The data will be collected from relevant government agencies and authorized organizations. Quick observations of vulnerable communities need to be done to assess the sensitivity and exposure towards food and nutritional insecurity. The risk assessment report need to be compiled and utilized for public awareness and multistakeholder consultations and shared through local and national media. This will help to increase the political will and public support for taking measures to reduce the risk.
Public awareness and community involvement:
This is basically a step for sensitizing public after analysis of risk assessment report with multistakeholders and communities. Their opinion on ways to reduce risk will be further compiled and analysed.
Local institutional mapping:
Existing local institutions that have potential roles in risk reduction will be mapped. This mapping accounts for both government and non-government agencies. The risk assessment report will be shared with identified institutions and their opinion on measures to be taken will be captured.
Policy review:
Review of existing policies on food security and nutrition will be done. The policies and strategies need to be clearly discussed at various levels. A policy brief need to be prepared based on the review and circulated through printing and electronic media.
Multistakeholder consultations:
Consultation meetings with multistakeholders (including political parties, government and non-government agencies, media, academicians) need to be organized. The findings of step of above steps will be shared among all. Consensus on food security and nutrition need to be sought from all the multistakeholders for final implementable strategies.
Crop cultivation is a complex process and involves a set of activities like land preparation, planting, pest control, irrigation, nutrient management, harvesting, marketing, etc. The entire cycle of crop production requires multitude of information by the farmers. Despite many efforts over the years to disseminate and transfer agriculture knowledge to the stakeholders, large amounts of expertise and knowledge are still out of reach to most of them. Agriculture knowledge may be contained in the corporate database, or it may reside undocumented inside the brain of the researchers or even stored in locations unknown to the majority of the people in the organization. Large sections of the farming community, particularly the rural folk, do not have access to the huge knowledge base acquired by agricultural universities, extension-centers and businesses. In this respect the main challenge is to find this knowledge and apply it to the decision making process involved in agriculture development. The main issue now is for organizations to recognize, locate and utilize this specialized knowledge; currently embedded in organizational databases, processes and routines as a distinct factor of production to increase productivity and competitiveness. Knowledge management is one of the tools for organizations to achieve the capabilities mentioned above to enable them to remain competitive in this fast changing world.
Knowledge Management Requirements in Agriculture
While formulating Third National Agricultural Policy in 1999, Ministry of Agriculture of Malaysia opined that knowledge is a fluid mix of contextual information, values, experience and rules. Knowledge Management (KM) is a term applied to techniques used for the systematic collection, transfer, security and management of information within organizations [Gerhard, 2006]. Process consists of collecting, organizing, classifying and disseminating information throughout an organization, so as to make it purposeful to those who need it [Albert, 1998]. Knowledge management in general tries to organize and make available important know-how, wherever and whenever it’s needed. This includes processes, procedures, patents, reference works, formulas, best practices, forecasts and fixes. Function of knowledge management is to allow an organization to leverage the information resources it has and to support purposeful activity with positive definable outcomes.
To apply these strategies in agriculture domain, there is need to have idea about what are information requirements of the grower, which are not handy and requires application of knowledge management. Information need of farmers during entire cycle of crop production may be broadly categorized [Hasan and Isaac, 2008] into Input procurement and marketing, Strategic Information, Past Trends, and Government Policies.
Input Procurement and Marketing
Farmers frequently seek information regarding various inputs needed in their field such as seed, fertilizers, pesticides, labour, transport, etc in terms of cost, quality, availability and possible sources. Once crop gets ready for harvesting, need arises for its marketing. The questions like; where to sale, when to sale, how to sale and whom to sale mesmerizes the farmers. At this point of time, information provision related to marketing and transportation is must, which may help farmers in decision-making of agriculture product marketing.
Strategic Information
There are several stages where farmer requires information to strengthen the planning and minimizing risk of cultivation. Information related to cultivation practices such as varietal characters, fertigation schedule, pest control methods, irrigation schedule, mechanization, planting and harvesting schedule, inter-cropping, crop rotation, etc may be classified under strategic information. Information about most suitable production and protection technologies is required for optimum and sustainable crop production.
Past Trends
Information on past trends regarding area, production, productivity, consumption, utilization, pest attack, climatic conditions, environmental concerns, fertigation, etc are of immense use in making decision in crop production. For example, past trends in climatic conditions may help growers in scheduling cultivation activities for optimum production and control of stresses.
Government Policy decisions
Government decisions related to agriculture and its products marketing, labour laws, land holdings, rural development etc is also important factors while taking decision. All such information must reach to the farmers at the earliest, so that one may take right decision for high production and maximum return. Many IT tools are available to record and disseminate information for decision support. Making available the information about government policies and support facilities to the farmers in time will empower the farmers in the way to their prosperity.
Harnessing the indigenous technical knowledge
Farmers in different parts of the world especially in poor and marginal indigenous groups of south Asia and Africa are experimenting with the agricultural adaptation measures in response to climatic variability for centuries. There is a wealth of knowledge for a range of measures that can help in developing agri-technologies to overcome climate vulnerabilities. Research works from plateau region clearly demonstrate that indigenous people and their knowledge are central to the adaptive changes for sustainable agriculture using available natural resources essential to face the world’s changing climate (Dey and Sarkar, 2011). There is a need to harness and manage such knowledge and fine-tune them to suit the modern needs.
ICT Tools and Techniques for Knowledge Management
Information and communications technologies are an important ingredient of virtually every successful knowledge management program. Sadaan [2001] has identified five essential categories of technology requirement in agricultural research and development for knowledge management viz. business intelligence, collaboration, knowledge transfer, knowledge discovery and expertise location. A variety of ICT tools are available for knowledge management in agriculture. An effective knowledge management in crop production and protection will involve an integrated approach of various ICT tools and techniques. Here we discuss some of key ICT technologies considered for knowledge management in crop cultivation.
Database & Data Warehouse
Database and data warehouse technologies [Chaudhari et al. 2001; Hipsley, 1996; Humpshires, 1999; Ralph, 1998] are used to store and retrieve large amount of data (both text and image) efficiently at affordable cost. Temporal / historical data on crop production, protection and utilization statistics, meteorological facts and pest / disease survey data and other useful data may be managed using these repositories for further analysis and decision support.
Data Mining, OLAP and analytical techniques
Data Mining and OLAP techniques [Ganti et al. 1999; Humpshires, 1999; Monte, 2001; Ralph, 1998] make it possible to extract new finding and meaningful patterns from large historical database. Based on these analytical techniques useful advices can be developed for farmers.
Expert System
An Expert System is an intelligent computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to solve problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solution. Expert in crop production and protection are the modern extension tools for decision support at farmer level. It can suggest suitable variety, method of field preparation & sowing, irrigation, fertilizer application, etc. Disorder diagnosis and treatment are one of oldest application of expert system.
GIS / GPS
A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Major application of GIS in agriculture includes land use analysis, thematic mapping, demographic analysis, socio-economic studies and environment management.
Internet / Intranet
Internet technology [Agarwal, 1999; Bennett, 1996] has revolutionized the world of information communication. With this the information dissemination to farming community can be made instantaneously in parallel. Further this technology provides a powerful collaboration mechanism for knowledge sharing using WWW, Email, Chatting, News Group, etc.
Simulation and Modeling
Modeling and simulation technology can be used to model an ideal crop situation and predict its growth through extrapolation and other techniques by considering a specific crop environment. Crop Simulation Models [Singh, 1994] can be developed for environmental characterization, optimizing crop management, pest / disease management, impact study of climate change, yield forecasting, effective crop scheduling, etc.
Multimedia Tools
Multimedia means many media – text, video, narrated sound, music, graphics, animations, special effects, etc. which are controlled, coordinated and integrated by a computer. Multimedia is simply multiple forms of media integrated together. Multimedia based Instructional Tools, Encyclopedia, Tutorials, Videos, etc not only give enhancement over text only messages but also improves understanding and retention of information.
Knowledge management initiatives in agriculture domain
The USDA Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency have cooperatively developed a knowledge base for assessment and monitoring of ecological states and processes in sixth-code watersheds. The knowledge base provides a formal logical specification for evaluating watershed processes, patterns, general effects of human influence, and specific effects on salmon habitat. The system integrates geographic information system and knowledge base system technologies to provide an analytical tool for environmental assessment and monitoring. The basic objective is to improve the quality and completeness of environmental assessments and the efficiency with which they are performed [Reynolds et al. 2000].
FarmNet is a network of rural people and supporting intermediary organizations, such as extension services, using ICTs and conventional communication media to facilitate the generating, gathering and exchanging of knowledge and information. Operated by farmers and their organizations, FarmNet (http://ftp.fao.org/sd/farmnet.pdf) links farmers to each other and to the resources and services that they need to improve their livelihoods through agricultural productivity, profitability and food security.
aAQUA is an online multilingual, multimedia Agricultural portal for disseminating information from and to the grassroots of the Indian agricultural community. aAQUA simultaneously addresses two major challenges in farmer outreach programs - geographic reach and customized delivery. It answers farmers queries based on the location, season, crop and other information provided by farmers. Agricultural content repositories (Digital Library), Agri-price information (Bhav Puchiye), farmer schemes and various operations support databases (aAQUA-QoS) have also emerged from the experience of aAQUA deployments. aAQUA's large scale deployment provides avenues for researchers to contribute in the areas of knowledge management, cross-lingual information retrieval, and providing accessible content for rural populations [Ramamritham, 2006].
Wen [2007] presents a knowledge-based intelligent e-commerce system for selling agricultural products. The KIES system not only provides agricultural products sales, financial analysis and sales forecasting, but also provides feasible solutions or actions based on the results of rule-based reasoning. The intelligent system integrates a database, a rule base and a model base to create a tool of which managers can use to deal with decision-making problems via the Internet. For offering convenient delivery and user-friendly services to customers, an e-map combined with a GPS is used.
LPCUBE Wise Agri KM™ is an innovative knowledge management solution designed for the agriculture industry. It enriches research and helps researchers to share knowledge and reuse the lessons learned. The collective knowledge base built using this platform can be used to disseminate right knowledge to the farmers at the right time. It enriches farming and ultimately improves agriculture productivity.
Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS), website http://www.fao.org/aims/index.jsp, is a portal whose main objectives are: to facilitate collaboration, partnership and networking among partners by promoting information exchange and knowledge sharing; and to harmonize the decentralized efforts currently taking place in the development of methodologies, standards and applications for management of agricultural information systems; consequently, providing a 'one-stop' access to system designers and implementers.
References
Agarwal, P.K. 1999. Building India's national Internet backbone. Communications of the ACM, 42 (6): 53-58.
Albert, S. 1998. Knowledgement Management: Living up to the hype? Midrange Systems, 11(13): 52.
Bennett, F. 1996. The Internet Roadmap, 3rd Edition, Sybex/BPB Publication, San Francisco.
Chaudhuri, S., Dayal, U. and Ganti V. 2001. Database Technology for decision support systems, Computer, 34: 48-55.
Dey, P. Hasan, S.S. and Kumar, Sanjeev (2013). Strategies for Knowledge Management in Agriculture Domain. In: Information and Knowledge Management: Tools, Techniques and Practices (Ed. A.K. Roy), ISSN No. 978-93-81450-62-8. New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi, pp. 455-461.
Dey, P. and Sarkar, A.K. (2011). Revisiting indigenous farming knowledge of Jharkhand (India) for conservation of natural resources and combating climate change. Indian J. Traditional Knowledge 10(1): 71-79.
Ganti, V., Gehrke, J. and Ramakrishnan, R. 1999. Mining very large databases, In: Proc. IEEE Computer, pp. 38-45.
Gerhard, M. 2006. Knowledge Management as a useful tool for implementing projects. Proc. FIG Workshop on eGovernance, Knowledge Management and eLearning, Budapest, Hungary, pp. 215-222.
Hasan, S.S. and Isaac, R.K. 2008. ICT for Sugarcane Farmers, Information for Development (i4d), March, pp. 27-28.
Hipsley, P. 1996. Developing Client / Server Applications with Oracle Developer / 2000, Tech Media, Sams Publishing, USA.
Humpshires, H. 1999. Data Warehouse Architecture & Implementation, Prentice-Hall Publication, New Jersey.
Ralph, K. 1998. Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, Wiley Computer Publishing, New York.
Ramamritham, K., Bahuman, A., Duttagupta, S., Bahuman, C. and Balasundaram, S. 2006. Innovative ICT Tools for Information Provision in Agricultural Extension. Proc. 15th international conference on World Wide Web 2006, Edinburgh, Scotland May 23 - 26, Berkeley, CA, pp. 34-38.
Reynolds, K.M., Jensen, M., Andreasen, J. and Goodman, I. 2000. Knowledge-based assessment of watershed Condition. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 27: 315–333.
Rhonda, D. and Monte, H. 2001. Data Mining Explained, Digital Press, New York.
Saadan, K. 2001. Conceptual Framework for the Development of Knowledge Management System in Agricultural Research and Development, Asia Pacific Advanced Network Conference 2001, Penang, Malaysia.
Singh, A.K. 1994. Crop Growth Simulation Models. IASRI, New Delhi, pp. 497-509.
Wen, W. 2007. A knowledge-based intelligent electronic commerce system for selling agricultural products. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 57: 33–46.
Dear All,
Good day!
Pulses, mostly grown as rainfed crops, are important for protein security and soil revitalisation properties due to symbiotic nitrogen fixtion throughout the world. Major pulses include chickpea or Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum), urdbean or black gram (Vigna mungo), lentil (Lens culinaris), pigeonpea or red gram (Cajanus cajan), mungbean or green gram (Vigna radiata), lablab bean (Lablab purpureus), moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia), horse gram (Dolichos uniflorus), pea (Pisum sativum), grass pea or khesari (Lathyrus sativus), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), broad bean or faba bean (Vicia faba) and kidney bean or Rajma (Phaseolus vulgaris). Given below are seven point strategies to improve pulse production.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Soil health is often intricately related with spread of invasive alien species which also should be a factor to recon with. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) defines Invasive Alien Species as an alien species which becomes established in natural or semi-natural ecosystems or habitat, an agent of change, and threatens native biological diversity. These invasive species are widely distributed in all kinds of ecosystems throughout the world, and include all categories of living organisms. Invasive species are good at exploiting bare soil and empty niches. Invasive species are generally non-natives that infest natural ecosystems, including forest, rangelands, and pastures. One way to avoid invasive species is to choose the ones that are native to the area. Natives often are adapted to a specific environmental niche, and have natural controls that keep them in balance. Invasive species, on the other hand, are tolerant against environmental extremes and possess greater flexibility for survival in wide range of conditions with high water, light and nutrient use efficiencies. Some of the invasive species also exhibit fire resistance besides better competitive ability and
allelopathy.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Nutrient management in India over time has specific syndrome which can be summarised by abuse of nitrogen, disuse of potassium, and generally coupled with overuse of phosphorus. It suggests inherent flaws in fertilizer application practices adopted by farmers that probably promotes imbalance in nutrient applications. The ICAR project on soil test crop response (AICRP-STCR) has used the multiple regression approach to develop relationship between crop yield on the one hand, and soil test estimates and fertilizer inputs on the other, can be effectively used to tackle such flaws. The future line of work should include, development of soil health assessment and management protocols on the basis of farming systems after superimposing agro-ecological regions, soil type, yield targeting and resource availability with broader commitment of improving soil health and reducing carbon-footprint; development of decision support tool which can be used for judicious agricultural resource management and periodic soil quality monitoring; evaluation and propagation of customized and speciality fertilizers, nano plant nutrient products; development and calibration of soil sensors for soil test crop response. Resudue burning need to be addressed holistically including energy consideration and dynamics of active / resistant pool of soil organic cabon. For salt affected soil, controlled drainage-subirrigation systems for recycling nitrate leaching from the soil profile and reduce nitrate lost in tile drainage may be advocated to all land reclamation corporation. Also there is a need to harness and manage the indigenous technical knowledge and fine-tune them to suit the modern needs. Notwithstanding the uncertainty over Kyoto commitments and instruments, the twin aspect of devising strategies for leveraging resources to tackle the challenge of low carbon transformation and strategies to enhance soil health and carbon sequestration will help in combating climate change without compromising economic development.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Moisture conservation enhances soil organic carbon by increasing period of vegetative cover, vegetative input to the soils and microbial population. This altogether leads to increase water stable aggregates that offer protection mechanism for longer residence time to soil organic carbon. In situ moisture conservation including inter row water harvesting, field bunding, mulching, deep ploughing and other agronomic practices such as drought tolerant cultivars, optimum plant density, and proper sowing time, balance fertilization, use of sprinklers and drips for irrigation on the undulated topography may have beneficial effect on soil organic carbon build up. Integrated and balanced use of nutrient and adoption of conservation agriculture also helps in soil carbon sequestration. Gene mining for drought avoidance is another aspect which helps in soil carbon sequestration. There are several species which have very extensive root system for mining water from large volume of soils and can survive very low water, such as Prosopis Juliflora surviving in the rainfall zone ranging from of 200 mm in Bhuj to 1000 mm around Ramnathpuram of east coast. Genetically modified plants can manage a biotic stress of droughts, salinity, heat and cold waves and such attempts may be beneficial for averting the impact of fallowing on soil organic carbon depletion. Finally, adoption of agroforestry system of land use combining agriculture, forestry, horticulture, livestock management and agrostology increases total productivity of food, feed and fuel and thereby reducing the risk of farming besides improving soil carbon sequestration. Further, region-specific amalgamated technological prescriptions refined with targeted policy analysis are required for effective implementation and obtaining positive outcomes within a finite time horizon.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
A high aggregation on account of increased silt and clay protects SOC from decomposition by trapping them between the aggregates. Soil organic carbon is essential for enhancing soil quality, sustaining and improving food production, maintaining clean water, reducing CO2 in the atmosphere and an effective soil quality indicator. Its concentration influences physical, chemical and biological qualities of soils, quality and quantity of biological produce. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the predominant parameter that affects other physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils. Cultivation generally depletes one third to half SOC, depending upon soil texture, erosion, and vegetative cover, management regime, initial concentration, period of fallowing and inorganic carbon accumulation. Available phosphorus and potassium were reported to increase with the stability of organic carbon and vice versa. Sodium adsorption on clay complex increased with SOC depletion. Thus soil organic carbon is dynamic and a widely accepted indicator, changing with land use and management history.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Climate change is a defining moment of our time with major negative implications on ecology, human culture, livelihoods and food security. Carbon sequestration is considered one of the remedial measures to arrest climate change. The principal way of carbon storage in soil is through formation of soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is a complex mixture of carbon compounds consisting of decomposed plant and animal tissues, microbial biomass and carbon associated with soil minerals. Among all these soil organic carbon (SOC) is most important one. The soil organic carbon can remain stored in soil for infinite period or may quickly released back to the atmosphere depending on various conditions. Soil organic carbon acquires a steady state at its potential value, where CO2 loss and SOC sequestration is at the equilibrium.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Ensuring food security for burgeoning population necessitates the production of additional food grain from the same land without losing the production potential of the soil. This, in turn, requires extensive research to provide a scientific basis for enhancing and sustaining food production as well as soil productivity with minimum environmental degradation. In general, soil quality and soil health are often used interchangeably and are considered synonymous. Soil health describes biological integrity of the soil community the balance among organism within a soil and between soil organism and their environment. Soil quality is a term that more often is used to describe physical attributes of a soil. The term “soil quality” literally emphasizes on three important aspects, viz., (i) focus on dynamic rather than inherent characteristics of soil, (ii) soil fitness rather than just preventing degradation, and (iii) interactions among soil processes rather than soil components.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Soil quality has become an internationally accepted science-based tool for advancing the assessment, education, understanding and management of soil resources. Two of the most important factors associated with the soil quality concept are that (1) soils have both inherent and dynamic properties and processes and that (2) soil quality assessment must reflect biological, chemical, and physical properties, processes and their interactions. In general, SQI is a useful assessment tool that may help in soil conservation and resource management apart from assessments of soil erosion and changes in productivity. SQI can thus provide the necessary information for planners and decision makers to make informed decisions against SQ degradation using the introduction of appropriate interventions. Despite such importance of SQI in combating SQ degradation, only few studies have been reported in relation to various land use and soil management systems. This indicated that research on SQI has been mostly neglected for unknown reasons, with the most probable reason which could be technical and financial limitations. Adoption of targeted yield approach provides the scientific basis for balanced fertilization not only between the fertilizer nutrients themselves but also that with the soil available nutrients for sustaining soil health.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey
I would like to propose the following topic:
On-line Plant Nutrient Recommendation.
Rationale: The farmers, especially for developing countries, urgently require timely and reliable information for taking decision on plant nutrition. At present, the farmers depend on trickling down of decision inputs from conventional sources, which are slow and often ambiguous, if not unreliable. The changing agricultural scenario that the farmers are facing today information not merely useful but necessary to remain competitive. Use of on-line fertiliser recommendation will ensure timely application of plant nutrients and thereby ensure profits and livelihood promotion in rural areas. It is possible to effectively integrate the system with GIS application. This will help in planning, advising and monitoring the status of crop stress conditions.
With warm regards,
Sincerely yours,
Pradip Dey
Dear Sir,
Good day!
Sorry for being late due to back to back Office tour. Kindly find below my feedback for needful at your esteem end please.
Investments in agriculture (whether foreign or domestic, private or public) must consider varying local circumstances and proceed with extra caution in ecologically sensitive or biodiverse areas. Something which of course can be done by genuinely involving agro-ecological experts and local populations with traditional/local knowledge about their surroundings – which of course is just one of many rationales for promoting participation and consultation. The issues like environmental, gender, human resources development etc. are indeed crosscutting, which suggest that there could be positive synergies if all RAI Principles are implemented together.
With warm regards,
Sincerely yours,
Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
Of the five nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals), the first three are usually highlighted and there is nothing wrong to that considering their prime importance towards energy and body building aspect. However, we also need to consider on other two: vitamins and minerals. Many of child and maternal problems are associated with this two. Reports on micronutrient malnutrition is increasing day by day. The issue is more severe amongst poor populace. Food fortification may help considerably in solving this problem. Also public awaremess programmes need to be initiated on a large scale.
With warm regards,
Sincerely,
Pradip Dey
Dr. Pradip Dey
Dear All,
Good day!
I would like to provide the following four points which may be considered for inclusion in the Voluntary Guidelines:
1. There is a need to include underemployment issue (which is rampant in fisheries sector) in the Voluntary Guidelines for sustainability in the Small-Scale Fisheries.
2. Non-point sources of water pollution issue including roles and responsibilities at different levels need to be included in the Voluntary Guidelines for for sustainability in Small-Scale Fisheries.
3. Biosecurity is an important aspect which is beyond the comprehension of farmers involved in Small-Scale Fisheries; there is a need for institutional arrangements which need to be included in the Voluntary Guidelines.
4, Traditional water management practices need to be included in the Voluntary Guidelines in order to develop adoptable technology that will enable mitigation of water scarcity and problem of climate change for financial inclusion and mainstreaming of indigenous small-scale fish farmers.
With warm regards,
Pradip Dey