Sowing Organic Seeds

There is a growing realisation that only the adoption of ecological and sustainable farming practices can reverse the declining trend in farm productivity in the state of West Bengal, India. The paper is on how a small holding (3.8 acres) family farm in a remote dry land area in India demonstrates what can be achieved by way of love for land and nature, self-determination, innovation and hard work. The educated farm family has neatly woven traditional knowledge and modern improvements in agricultural science for developing their organic farm and sustenance of nature. The income from the farm meets their domestic and social needs. Their child goes to one of best private English medium school. There have been noticeable positive changes among the neighbouring farmers, soil and ecology

Higgs boson mass, neutrino masses and mixing and keV dark matter in an U(1)R−U(1)_R- lepton number model

We discuss neutrino masses and mixing in the framework of a supersymmetric model with an $U(1)_{R}$ symmetry, consisting of a single right handed neutrino superfield with an appropriate R charge. The lepton number ($L$) of the standard model fermions are identified with the negative of their R-charges. As a result, a subset of leptonic R-parity violating operators can be present and are consistent with the $U(1)_R$ symmetry. This model can produce one light Dirac neutrino mass at the tree level without the need of introducing a very small neutrino Yukawa coupling. We analyze the scalar sector of this model in detail paying special attention to the mass of the lightest Higgs boson. One of the sneutrinos might acquire a substantial vacuum expectation value leading to interesting phenomenological consequences. Different sum rules involving the physical scalar masses are obtained and we show that the lightest Higgs boson mass receives a contribution proportional to the square of the neutrino Yukawa coupling $f$. This allows for a 125 GeV Higgs boson at the tree level for $f \sim {\cal O} (1)$ and still having a small tree level mass for the active neutrino. In order to fit the experimental results involving neutrino masses and mixing angles we introduce a small breaking of $U(1)_R$ symmetry, in the context of anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. In the presence of this small R-symmetry breaking, light neutrino masses receive contributions at the one-loop level involving the R-parity violating interactions. We also identify the right handed sterile neutrino as a warm dark matter candidate in our model. In the case of R-symmetry breaking, the large $f$ case is characterized by a few hundred MeV lightest neutralino as an unstable lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and we briefly discuss the cosmological implications of such a scenario.Comment: Minor corrections in the text, figure 9.6 and 9.7 modified, eq. (66) added, matches with the published version in JHE

Effective String Theory Inspired Potential and Meson Masses in Higher Dimension

Nambu-Goto action in classical bosonic string model for hadrons predicts quark-antiquark potential to be\cite{Nambu-Goto} $V(r)=-\frac{\gamma}{r}+\sigma r +\mu_0$. In this report we present studies of masses of heavy flavour mesons in higher dimension with our recently developed wave functions obtained following string inspired potential. We report the dimensional dependence of the masses of mesons. Our results suggest that as the meson mass increases with the number of extra spatial dimension, it will attain the Planck scale ($\sim 10^{19}GeV$) asymptotically at an astronomically large spatial dimension (we call it Planck dimension) $D_{Planck} \sim 10^{11}$, which sets the limit of applicability of Schrodinger equation in large dimension

Sustainable Agriculture And Food Security In West Bengal

Cropping intensity in West Bengal is 185%, one of the highest in our country. Intensity of fertilizer use has been consistently increasing. The state ranked seventh in fertilizer use (172 Kg) per hectare of gross cropped area by size of holding in 2010-11. There is an inverse relationship between farm size and intensity of fertilizer use. Soil recharging pulse crops occupied slightly more than 3% of the gross cropped area under rice cultivation in 2009-10. Mono-cropping, indiscriminate and increasing trend in use of pesticides, increasing cost of inputs and labour and changes in climate change has resulted in agrarian stress. FAO in its guide book “Save and Grow”, 2011 points out that the present paradigm of intensive crop production cannot meet the challenges of the new millennium. Dr MS Swaminathan recommends for evergreen revolution for increase in productivity in perpetuity, without ecological harm. There is growing consciousness about benefits of organic agriculture as resilient and can ensure true food security in long run, i.e. sufficient, chemical free (safe) and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. More and more farmers are adopting sustainable agriculture and the area under organic farming increased many folds from 42 thousand hectares in 2003-04 to 4430 thousand hectares of cultivated land under certification in 2010-11, accounting for 6 lakhs farmers, mainly small and marginal. The population of India increased at an exponential rate of 1.64% year on year (YoY) during 2001-11 and for West Bengal it’s 1.31%. On continuing with conventional production, the per capita availability of cereals would be 390 grams per day in 2032 for West Bengal and 568 grams per day for India. The adjusted R2 of fit is 78% for West Bengal and 96% for India. There is a steady decline in growth of cereal production in India and the decline is more striking in West Bengal. On converting 5% of the total cultivated land under cereals production in West Bengal from conventional into sustainable agricultural practices for the next 20 years, per capita availability of cereals would be 450 grams for West Bengal and 564 grams for India in 2032 (see Figure). Under sustainable methods, cereal production was reduced by 30% on first year and increased by 10% from next year upto three years, thereon cereal production was increased by 3% YoY. Besides, the cost of production under sustainable agricultural methods is comparatively much less than conventional agriculture. Support Needed for Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in West Bengal: 1. Review the present state agricultural policies and subsidies, especially those that act as barrier to development of sustainable agriculture 2. Favourable policy support – to integrate sustainable agriculture as state mission with explicit policy and strategic plan for extension, adequate funding support and set goals 3. Create an innovation Centre of Excellence in West Bengal to promote sustainable agriculture development, particularly in Eastern India. The centre may be setup in strategic collaboration with state government, national and international institutions, universities involving experts and farmers for research and innovation, PG studies, training, extension, knowledge repository and advocacy 4. Support innovation, capacity building and information to farmers 5. Ensure availability of organic inputs: seeds, bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides etc. 6. Ensure availability of farm advisory services and innovative institutional and funding support for organic certification, labeling and inspection 7. Provide market support 8. Support and create consumer awareness 9. Integrate and promote the efforts of NGOs, private organizations and entrepreneurs

Constraints on a Minimal Hidden Photon with Kaluza-Klein Excitations in Large Extra Dimensions

The major purpose of this work is to combine the minimal-hidden-photon model with Large Extra Dimensions (LED). This involves confining the Standard- Model photon to a 3-brane, whilst allowing the hidden photon and graviton to occupy the higher-dimensional bulk. After integrating out the extra dimensions both the hidden photon and graviton obtain a tower of massive Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes. The Standard-Model photon obtains no KK modes, in accordance with experiment. The work begins with a discussion of the minimal hidden photon with-out KK modes, including the current constraints. In most cases existing constraints are simply quoted or rederived, but for some experiments original constraints are produced. For example new constraints from atomic spectra are produced. Significant modifications are also made to the published constraint from the SN1987a energy-loss experiment. This means properly accounting for the plasma mass of the electron, and also accounting for the modification of the kinetic-mixing parameter in a plasma. Finally constraints are produced for the minimal-hidden-photon model with KK modes