Tropical and Subtropical Maize in Asia: Production Systems, Constraints, and Research Priorities

This book examines future technological and policy prospects for the sustainable intensification of rainfed upland maize production in Asia, and derives R&D priorities for specific maize production environments and markets. Village-level and farmer-group surveys were conducted to characterize upland maize production environments and systems in China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Survey findings, particularly farmer-identified constraints to maize production, complemented with other relevant data, were used in country-level, R&D priority-setting workshops. High on the list of farmer constraints was drought, estimated to affect three production environments that are home to about 48 million rural poor and produce an estimated 16 million tons of maize, and others such as downy mildew, stem borers, soil erosion/landslides, waterlogging, poor agricultural extension/ technology transfer services, and poor access to low-interest credit and markets. Farmers felt that socioeconomic and policy-related constraints impact maize productivity more than technical constraints do. It is important to recognize that technology is not the only key to increasing productivity and bettering the conditions of marginal maize farmers in Asia. There is a growing trend towards commercializing and intensifying maize production that is different from the staple food self-sufficiency paradigm that has been the cornerstone of agricultural policy in most developing countries. Appropriate government policies could help alleviate the adverse consequences of commercialization and promote sustainable intensification of maize production, especially in marginal environments inhabited by resource-poor subsistence farmersMaize, Agricultural development, Farming systems, Production policies, Environmental factors, Cropping systems, Research projects, Project management, Asia, Crop Production/Industries, E10,

Towards Reduced Pesticide Use for Cereal Crops in Asia

Several opportunities are available for dramatically reducing the use of agrochemicals in Asian cereal crop production. The first section of this paper summarizes past trends and future prospects for pesticide use in Asia for the three major cereal crops: rice, wheat, and maize. The second section identifies factors that have contributed to rising farm-level demand for pesticides and factors that could lead to a reduction in their demand. The third section highlights the advances that have been made in generating and disseminating cereal crops with resistance to insects and diseases. It focuses on conventional breeding strategies for host-plant resistance as well as the current and potential contributions of biotechnology. Pesticide productivity, yield variability, and their relation to host-plant resistance are reviewed, along with evidence from trials and farmers' fields. The paper concludes with a discussion of the integrated management approaches that will be necessary for maximizing and sustaining the productivity gains offered by resistant varieties.Crop Production/Industries,

SOLITUDE, SPIRITUAL BEINGS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Ancient Indian tradition extols solitariness. It considers solitariness as a necessary precondition for a spiritual well-being and enlightenment. Every aspirant should pass through the two stages of solitary life vanaprastha and saṃnyāsa in one’s spiritual journey. Spiritual aspirants of the distant and recent past have imbibed the virtues of solitary life. The society even today regards them with the greatest respect and veneration. But what is the role of spiritual solitary beings to society? Do they have any responsibility to the society? Or being in solitude is an end-in-itself for them? It is a matter of discussion as whether the solitary being after liberation, should come back to society to help liberate the masses as well. This issue was discussed in early philosophical literature and by some recent spiritualists as well. I will try to explore this issue with inputs from traditional discussions and works of spiritualists like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharishi and others. I will try to address this issue by taking note of current happenings in Indian society

THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND THE PROPOSED REGULATION OF CIGARETTES

Since the 1930s the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") has taken broad Jurisdiction over eveiyday products in an attempt to ensure public health. Despite that mission, the FDA In particular and the Federal government In general has done little to regulate the tobacco Industry. Recently, however, the Commissioner of the FDA, Dr. David A. Kessler. raised the possibility of regulating the cigarette industry. But is the simple regulation of cigarettes permitted by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which grants the FDA jurisdiction over products? Given the unanimity of opinion on the hazards of cigarette smoking, the answer to this question is no, and yet the conclusion that cigarettes must be banned seems too radical to seriously imagine. As a result, the context in which the FDA has approached cigarette smoking should be analyzed

INDIAN INITIATIVES FOR ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION

Society, at large, has to realise the gravity of environmental degradation and participate fully in the mitigation of environmental problems. This article discusses the Indian initiatives and the important milestones in the path of environmental protection and pollution abatement. The commitment of the Indian Government to the cause of public awareness of environmental conservation is reflected in its outreach and educational programmes. It involves ministries, environmental monitoring agencies, NGOs, academic and research institutions. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has played a leading role in the national priority programmes of environmental monitoring, assessment and pollution control. All the stakeholders have succeeded to some extent in creating public interest in environmental issues but much more needs to be done. National level institutions like NEERI, NIO and TERI are actively involved in research to find feasible solutions to our environmental problems and in the dissemination of relevant information through their publications. In our country, voluntary organisations and NGOs have been contributing immensely to environmental causes. Following the directive of the Supreme Court in 1991, environmental education is a compulsory component of school and college curricula. India has contributed significantly to the deliberations at COP (Conference of the Parties) fora especially the recently held COP-21 at Paris. Our suggestions for creating a pollution-free world have always been welcomed by the participating countries especially the developing countries. This article also presents the results of an environmental study carried out in Wilson College, Mumbai in which the effect of salinity on the rate of degradation of effluents released in marine waters, was quantitatively studied using reaction kinetics

Rapid Prototyping for the Design of Virtual Worlds

Development of Virtual Reality (VR) applications is challenging where application developers are required to have expertise in the target VR technologies along with the problem domain expertise. New VR technologies impose a significant learning curve to even the most experienced VR developer. The proposed solution relies on synthesis to automate the migration of a VR application to a new unfamiliar VR platform/technology. To solve the problem, the Common Scene Definition Framework (CSDF) was developed, that serves as a superset/model representation of the target virtual world. Input modules were developed to populate the framework with the capabilities of the virtual world imported from VRML 2.0 and X3D formats. The synthesis capability was built into the framework to synthesize the virtual world into a subset of VRML 2.0, VRML 1.0, X3D and Java3D platforms. Interfaces were designed to keep the framework extensible to different and new VR formats/technologies. The framework demonstrated the ability to quickly synthesize a working prototype of the input virtual world in the different VR formats

Effect Of Oestradiol On Mouse Vaginal Epithelium

Oestradiol which induces the proliferation of the vaginal epithelium is used in the oestrogen replacement therapy for menopausal and postmenopausal disorders. The exact onset of induced cell proliferation and recovery to the controlled level has not been reported before. Hence this study was done in ovariectomised mice and the period of cellular response to ethinyl estradiol, a semisynthetic ester (0.025mg/kg) was recorded. The vaginal epithelium was studied for histological changes and incidence of mitotic figures. The onset of proliferation started at 4h after exposure and reached its maximum at 32h and declined gradually thereafter to reach the base level at 60h

NEW PATHWAYS IN CHEMISTRY

Chemistry is a science whose progress is exponential as it touches every aspect of our existence and provides all the things required for life to survive on this planet. Chemistry is rightly called the Science of Life. Chemical processes provide food, clothing, shelter medicines, and energy to sustain life. Feeding the ever-increasing population is a big challenge calling for increased production of crops, minimizing losses during their harvesting and storage and use of new, improved varieties like Genetically modified (GM) food grains and pulses. The use of fertilizers has increased manifold over the years, leading to an increase in the production of food. Clothing is made from plant fibres like cotton and silk. New and better varieties of cotton have been developed. Nylon, produced by the polymer industry is also a critical clothing material in some parts of the world. New materials like composites, fly ash bricks, and polymeric wastes are being increasingly used for construction purposes, especially for housing and roads.  Research for the synthesis of new drugs to combat diseases is a continuous activity, and the pharmaceutical industry has a considerable investment, especially in our country. Indigenous medicine systems like Ayurveda, Homoeopathy and Unani are also contributing to health welfare, especially in India. Of late, nanomedicines are emerging as an essential area of medicine. Non-conventional energy sources like solar, nuclear, hydro, biodiesel and wind energy are being increasingly tapped as possible substitutes for the fast depleting coal and oil reserves. The International Solar Alliance, initiated by India, aims at forging a strong partnership between all nations to tap and use solar energy

Structure and Rheology of the Defect-gel States of Pure and Particle-dispersed Lyotropic Lamellar Phases

We present important new results from light-microscopy and rheometry on a moderately concentrated lyotropic smectic, with and without particulate additives. Shear-treatment aligns the phase rapidly, except for a striking network of oily-streak defects, which anneals out much more slowly. If spherical particles several microns in diameter are dispersed in the lamellar medium, part of the defect network persists under shear-treatment, its nodes anchored on the particles. The sample as prepared has substantial storage and loss moduli, both of which decrease steadily under shear-treatment. Adding particles enhances the moduli and retards their decay under shear. The data for the frequency-dependent storage modulus after various durations of shear-treatment can be scaled to collapse onto a single curve. The elasticity and dissipation in these samples thus arises mainly from the defect network, not directly from the smectic elasticity and hydrodynamics.Comment: 19 pages inclusive of 12 PostScript figures, uses revtex, psfrag and epsfig. Revised version, accepted for publication in Euro. Phys. J. B, with improved images of defect structure and theoretical estimates of network elasticity and scalin

Isozyme parameters in genetic evaluation in Brassica - a tribute to Haldane's vision on the synergy between biochemistry and genetics

Isozymes as biochemical markers possess distinct advantages over molecular markers like RFLP in breeding for quantitative trait (QT) improvement. Five parameters exhaustive of isozyme variation, viz. number of bands, relative absorption, standard error (relative absorption), relative mobility, and standard error (relative mobility) (IST) were conceived. The two standard error parameters are new and not used so far. They are crucial in accounting for environmental contributions to isozyme variation. In this paper, varieties were arranged into a set of base groups on a genetic basis using six QTs. The grouping was done afresh on IST and a commonality index was used to measure the efficiency of IST in genetic differentiation. Using two sets of experiments in Brassica representing four species, and the enzyme esterase, it was shown that IST based on esterase alone was quite efficient in identifying the base genetic groups. The results confirm Prof. J.B.S. Haldane's vision that integration of biochemical and genetic concepts on properly designed experiments, logically conceived data and analysis will provide novel avenues for innovative methods of improvement