Search

The “Green Revolution” (GR) technology-induced agricultural intensification has transformed India from food scarcity to a food surplus country. However, this has also resulted into several adverse repercussions. Increased application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides with stagnating/declining crop productivity has dovetailed with uncertain market conditions and climate change effects which has resulted in un-remunerative agriculture. Consequently, farmers have fallen into the debt trap due to the rising cost of crop production apart from health hazards due to serious exposure to harmful chemical pesticides. Natural Farming (NF), an agro-ecological approach to farming is believed to be an effective way to counter some of these challenges. The present paper presents field-level farmers’ experiences of NF adoption in three states of India—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The study was conducted during February–March 2019 by surveying 295 NF adopted and 170 non-NF adopted farmers. It was found that NF practice has been followed by some farmers for more than 10 years but others have adopted during the recent past. There is variation in the practice followed by the NF farmers. There are farmers who are using Farm Yard Manure (FYM). A solid form of jeevamritha (liquid concoction of microbial inoculants) called as ghanajeevamritha was also found to be used by farmers in Andhra Pradesh. It was observed that non-NF yields are superior to NF yield without FYM. In most crops, however, NF with FYM had a greater yield than NF without FYM and non-NF farms. There has been a decrease in the variable cost and a marginal increase in the market price of NF produce. The study suggests that natural farming may be seen as one of the alternative practices which has potential to rejuvenate the agro-ecosystem, besides cost saving for the individual farmers.

The rising temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are anticipated to have a significant impact on the productivity of agricultural crops. Although, the individual effects of elevated CO 2 and temperature have been extensively studied in C3 and C4 crops, there remains a scarcity of research investigating their interactive effects specifically on maize hybrids. The impact of elevated temperature and its interaction with elevated CO 2 on phenology, physiology, biomass, and grain yield of maize hybrids was assessed in a field experiment using Free Air Temperature Elevation (FATE) facility. The results showed that elevated temperature (eT) increased the anthesis silking interval (ASI), while the presence of elevated CO 2 along with elevated temperature (eT + eCO 2 ) mitigated this effect. The differential expression were observed between hybrids depending on their genetic potential. Furthermore, the net photosynthetic rate (A net ), stomatal conductance (g s ), and transpiration rate (Tr) of hybrids decreased under elevated temperature but eT + eCO 2 condition helped in reverting its impact to some extent. In term of leaf composition, the highest level of total soluble sugars (TSS) and starch was observed under eT + eCO 2 conditions, possibly due to improved A net in the presence of elevated eCO 2 . The negative impact of eT was also evident through increased proline and MDA content, but eT + eCO 2 ameliorated the adverse effect of eT. The biomass and grain yield also responded similarly, among the hybrids 900M GOLD recorded superior performance for grain yield at eT condition exceeding 35 °C. On the other hand, DHM117 experienced a significant reduction in grain yield under eT, but performed better under eT + eCO 2 due to its improved physiological response to eCO 2 . The study indicated that elevated levels of carbon dioxide can actually mitigate the detrimental effects of elevated temperature on maize crop. This positive impact on maize crop can be attributed to an enhanced physiological performance in the presence of eCO 2 which enables the plants to maintain satisfactory yield levels despite the challenging environmental conditions., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: To determine the factors influencing the dietary habits of the varied groups among adults in India., Design/approach: Data on food habits such as choice of diet, preference toward meat, spicy food, sugar/calorie etc., were collected from the participants (from several higher education institutions) of different training programmes and events organised at ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad and its students of Post Graduate Diploma in Agribusiness Management., Findings: Results of the study indicated that the food choice of the respondents is highly influenced by their region, age and gender. Most of the respondents preferred vegetarian food with increasing age. We also noticed that as age of the respondents increased, their preference toward simple & plain food (with less oil/spice) also increased. From the present investigation, it is recommended that the customized food menu should be prepared in every food serving institution based on the region, age and gender of the consumer., Novelty: Analysis of dietary patterns can be helpful for doctors, dieticians, food policy-making, restaurateurs, youth hostels, food organisations, mega kitchens etc. that would also contribute to responsible food consumption., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Soam, Yashavanth, Dhumantarao, Maruthamuthu, Balasani and Rakesh.)