Indian Agricultural Scenario and Food Security Concerns in the Context of Climate Change: a Review

This paper presents a brief review of the trends in foodgrain production in India, the determinants of its growth and domestic foodgrain supply projections to draw inferences about the future foodgrain production trends. The foodgrain supply forecasts are examined in relation to the likely demand of foodgrains to answer whether India would have a situation of food surplus or deficit. The paper summarizes the supply and demand side aspects of food security in the context of climate change- covering on one hand, the climate change impact on availability and stability of food supplies and on the other, its likely influence on the access and utilization dimensions of food demand.food security; climate change

Formal Milk Processing Sector in Assam: Lessons to be Learnt from Institutional Failure

Assam initiated organised development of milk processing way back in the mid 1960s. The total installed capacity of pasteurisation and chilling plants in the State is 159 thousand and 28.5 thousand litres per day, respectively. The current scenario of the formal milk processing segment in the state is however, grim. The created infrastructure is either largely defunct or grossly under-utilized. The functional plants are operating at very low level of their installed capacity, have limited product profile, high returns of marketed milk, substantial handling and curdling losses, low productivity of capital and labour and huge operational losses. The poor performance of the plants has been attributed to the establishment of milk processing units without an appropriate assessment of output demand and input supply and ascertainment of economic viability of the plants. In addition, the supporting institutional and infrastructural mechanism has not been put in place and a systematic business and management plan to run the system has not been formulated. Drawing lessons from the institutional failure, the study has suggested some possible interventions and policy initiatives for strengthening the dairy processing activities in the state of Assam.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Sustainable and Dynamic Supply Chain in world Business: Recent Trends

By moving from the "integrated" to the "dynamic" supply chain model, businesses may see their supply chains as flexible ecosystems of people, processes, capital assets, technology, and data. In the rapidly evolving corporate world, effective supply chain management (SCM) is a critical issue. Dynamic SCM necessitates good decision information synchronization and integrated decision-making among autonomous chain partners. Complex supply chains (SCs), which are part of globalised economic systems, must be managed to minimize sustainability-related risks and to manage environmental and social impacts in accordance with the expectations of many stakeholders. The analysis of recent trends has highlighted the fact that use of quantitative modelling techniques for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is increasingly becoming more and more popular. Secondly, simulation techniques are underrepresented in SSCM compared to analytical models and mathematical programming. For organizations that are looking to infuse a fresh breath in there SCM operations inclusion of system dynamics (SD) modelling for simulating and analyzing complex and dynamic systems as well as for assisting long-term, strategic decision-making will pay rich dividends.

JAMMU AND KASHMIR DURING THE COMMUNICATION BLACKOUT: A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF INDIAN NEWS COVERAGE

This study examines the news coverage of Jammu and Kashmir conflict during the communication blackout of 2019. Using comparative analysis, it explores right-leaning, left-leaning and neutral newspapers to examine how political leanings affected the news coverage and asks whether the coverage challenges the actions by the central government amid limitations of press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir. The findings indicate the ideological leanings of the newspapers affected the news coverage during the communication blackout and the news overwhelmingly supported the central government’s nationalist ideologies and relied on government officials for information. However, a few stories, primarily in the left-leaning Hindu newspaper, represented the voices of the residents of Jammu and Kashmir and held the central government accountable. This study concludes that though the communication blackout severely restricted press freedom, it didn’t extinguish it entirely as journalists were able to represent diversity and voices of dissent

Current scenario of livestock development and potential interventions for livelihood improvement: The cases of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram

This background paper on ‘current scenario of livestock development and potential interventions for livelihood improvement’ prepared jointly by Dr Smita Sirohi and Dr AK Chauhan of NDRI, Karnal will be useful in formulating a suitable livestock investment strategy for Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram based on the existing situation. The draft of this study report was presented in stakeholder workshops in Itanagar and Aizawl and the feedback given by the workshop participants is incorporated while finalizing this report

Current scenario of livestock development and potential interventions for livelihood improvement: Case of Jharkhand, India

This background paper identifies the poor communities engaged in livestock husbandry in Jharkhand, problems faced by them and scope for growth of this sector. The performance of the livestock sector has not been optimum due to lack of critical inputs and services and poor linkage with the market. As the farmers do not adopt improved breeding, feeding and management practices, the productivity of large and small ruminants is poor. Use of balanced compounded feed is negligible and health care is mainly dependent on traditional medicines and ultimately, fate of the animals. However, as the investment level and out-of pocket expenses are almost negligible, farmers continue to rear livestock. Poor infrastructural facilities for delivery of livestock support services is another serious constraint. The small size of landholding with low production potential also limits the scope for growing green fodder on agricultural holdings. Hence, the animals depend on common property resources which are not systematically managed and the quality of feed and fodder from common lands is also inferior. Livestock rearing can become an economic enterprise if development initiatives strengthen the entire value chain and the activity is self-sustainable. Farmers can be motivated to adopt technically sound and economically viable improved livestock farming practices only if they are assured of goat markets and quality input services. Follow up on supervision, monitoring, a system of performance-linked incentives and accountability is critical for the success of any development initiative in Jharkhand. The livestock improvement programme in Jharkhand should focus on indigenous cattle, goat, pigs and poultry. The rural poor require a selective cattle breed improvement programme which can serve their requirement for draught animal power and increase the milk yield. In the periurban areas and among the resource-rich farmers, crossbred animals can become instruments of dairy development. Goat rearing needs to be promoted to provide meat and milk. Investment initiatives can also be taken up for promoting small-scale enterprises in rural areas to process the livestock produce. Based on the incidence of poverty, geographical representation of the state and demographic characteristics, the study suggests targetting a few districts for livestock development in the first phase

Effect of isolates of fibre degrading bacteria on body weight changes, milk production and its composition, nutrient intake and nutrient utilization in lactating Murrah buffaloes

Fibrolytic bacterial strains were isolated from the rumen liquor of permanently fistulated buffaloes kept on high fibre diet (roughage: concentrate: 60:40; w/w) on the basis of in vitro true dry matter digestibility study on pure neutral detergent fibre isolated from wheat straw and on high fibre based diet (wheat straw: concentrate: 80:20; w/w). Based on enzyme activity, the most potent fibre degrading bacterial isolate was selected which was further characterized on the basis of its morphology, biochemical properties and molecular properties and was found to be Ruminococcus flavefaciens strain FD-1 which was finally used as feed supplement for in vivo trial on lactating Murrah buffaloes. 12 lactating buffaloes divided into treatment and control groups of six animals each were fed with experimental diets and live and autoclaved culture of best selected fibrolytic bacterial isolate (NB-1) that is, R. flavefaciens strain FD-1; 300 ml orally alternate day continuously for one month period. No significant difference was observed in the mean body weight changes and daily milk yield between the treated and control groups although the live body weight and daily milk yield was increased in live culture supplemented treated group. There was no effect on milk composition of the animal. The difference in mean dry matter intake was significant (P <0.05) between control (11.11 kg/day) and treated groups (11.77 kg/day) during the experimental period. The digestibility of NDF and ADF was found to be higher in treated group by 9.66 and 19.20% over that of the control group although the effect was not significant. Thus, the bacterial culture of R. flavefaciens strain FD-1 showed the potential to be used as feed additive in the diet of ruminants for improving live body weight gain, daily milk yield as well as utilization of nutrients from lignocellulosic feeds.Keywords: Fibrolytic bacterial culture, lactating buffaloes, milk yield, nutrient utilizationAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(21), pp. 3302-330

Multi-band superconductivity driven by a site-selective mechanism in Mo8_8Ga41_{41}

The family of the endohedral gallide cluster compounds recently emerged as a new family of superconductors which is expected to host systems displaying unconventional physics. Mo$_8$Ga$_{41}$ is an important member of this family which shows relatively large $T_c \sim$ 10 K and has shown indications of strong electron-phonon coupling and multi-band superconductivity. Here, through direct measurement of superconducting energy gap by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) we demonstrate the existence of two distinct superconducting gaps of magnitude 0.85 meV and 1.6 meV respectively in Mo$_8$Ga$_{41}$. Both the gaps are seen to be conventional in nature as they evolve systematically with temperature as per the predictions of BCS theory. Our band structure calculations reveal that only two specific Mo sites in an unit cell contribute to superconductivity where only $d_{xz}$/$d_{yz}$ and $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals have strong contributions. Our analysis indicates that the site-elective contribution govern the two-gap nature of superconductivity in Mo$_8$Ga$_{41}$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure