Assessment of household perceptions to climate adaptation for resilient rural development planning in India

376-382Enhancing resilience of rural communities to climate change requires a clear understanding of micro-level perceptions and adaptation issues and their integration with the rural developmental framework. We collected household level data to understand grass-root perspectives on climate variability, impacts and barriers to adaptation in two different districts; Moga, Punjab and Mahbubnagar, Telangana. Further the study uses meteorological data to validate farmers perceptions. The results show that change in the quantum and distribution of rainfall, rising temperature, ground water depletion, lower farm income, higher unemployment and rural migration are some of the major impacts of climate change. Moreover, farmers perceptions on climate variability were consistent with the observed climate trend. Against climatic variations farmers were making shift to crop varieties of suitable duration, curtailing expenditure, borrowing and participating in employment guarantee schemes. However, farmers responses were constrained by barriers like lack of accessibility to weather information, limited knowledge on the cost-benefit of adaptation, inaccessibility to climate smart technologies, inadequate financial resources and unawareness on welfare schemes. The study concludes there is a need to reorient the developmental programmes at the macro-level considering micro-level needs and constraints for climate resilient agriculture

Dynamics of socio-economic factors affecting climate vulnerability and technology adoption: Evidence from Jodhpur district of Rajasthan

Climate change and extreme weather fluctuations are the most threatening challenges to the farming communities especially in semi-arid tropics. The paper investigates socio-economic factors affecting vulnerability and adoption of innovations using micro-level survey data of 100 systematically selected farmers in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India. The results reveal that higher income, irrigation and provision of seeds reduce climate vulnerability to a great extent. Several farm level strategies have been adopted by the farmers against climate induced stress, including change in cropping pattern, reduction in irrigation usage, use of drips and sprinklers and water conservation. In case of pearl millet cropping system, we found that adoption of wide row spacing is significantly influenced by the level of the farmer’s education, land size category, climate awareness and trainings programs. The study suggests that diversified crop sequence involving pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley-onion, farmers’ adoption of suitable adaptation strategies and climate resilient technologies will improve with better awareness, education and farm governance with regard to climate change. Moreover, technologies especially indigenous ones suitable to the local contextual needs must be developed or fine-tuned and disseminated for reducing climate-induced vulnerability

Dynamics of socio-economic factors affecting climate vulnerability and technology adoption: Evidence from Jodhpur district of Rajasthan

192-196Climate change and extreme weather fluctuations are the most threatening challenges to the farming communities especially in semi-arid tropics. The paper investigates socio-economic factors affecting vulnerability and adoption of innovations using micro-level survey data of 100 systematically selected farmers in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India. The results reveal that higher income, irrigation and provision of seeds reduce climate vulnerability to a great extent. Several farm level strategies have been adopted by the farmers against climate induced stress, including change in cropping pattern, reduction in irrigation usage, use of drips and sprinklers and water conservation. In case of pearl millet cropping system, we found that adoption of wide row spacing is significantly influenced by the level of the farmer’s education, land size category, climate awareness and trainings programs. The study suggests that diversified crop sequence involving pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley-onion, farmers’ adoption of suitable adaptation strategies and climate resilient technologies will improve with better awareness, education and farm governance with regard to climate change. Moreover, technologies especially indigenous ones suitable to the local contextual needs must be developed or fine-tuned and disseminated for reducing climate-induced vulnerability

Testing Unimodular Gravity

We consider models of gravitation that are based on unimodular general coordinate transformations (GCT). These transformations include only those which do not change the determinant of the metric. We treat the determinant as a separate field which transforms as a scalar under unimodular GCT. We consider a class of such theories. In general, these theories do not transform covariantly under the full GCT. We characterize the violation of general coordinate invariance by introducing a new parameter. We show that the theory is consistent with observations for a wide range of this parameter. This parameter may serve as a test for possible violations of general coordinate invariance. We also consider the cosmic evolution within the framework of these models. We show that in general we do not obtain consistent cosmological solutions if we assume the standard cosmological constant or the standard form of non-relativistic matter. We propose a suitable generalization which is consistent with cosmology. We fit the resulting model to the high redshift supernova data. We find that we can obtain a good fit to this data even if include only a single component, either cosmological constant or non-relativistic matter.Comment: 14 pages one figure, significantly revised with several new results adde

Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Crop Yields in Different Agro-climatic Zones of India

The study attempts to estimate and predict climate impact on crop yields using future temperature projections under two climate emissions scenarios of RCP 4.5 and 8.5 for three different time periods (2030s, 2050s and 2080s) across Agro-climatic zones (ACZ) of India. During the period 1966-2011, a significant rise was observed in both the annual mean maximum and minimum temperature across ACZs. Rainfall recorded an annual decline in Himalayan Regions and Gangetic Plains and a rise in Coastal Regions, Plateau & Hills and Western Dry Region. Our results showed high heterogeneity in climate impact on kharif and rabi crop yields (with both negative and positive estimates) across ACZs. It was found that rainfall had a positive effect on most of crop yields, but was not sufficient enough to counterbalance the impact of temperature. Changes in crop yield were more pronounced for higher emission scenario of RCP 8.5. Thus, it was evident that the relative impacts of climate change and the associated vulnerability vary by ACZs, hence comprehensive crop and region-specific adaptation measures should be emphasized that helps in enhancing resilience of agricultural system in short to medium term

Occurrence of multiple combinations of G and P types of group A bovine and human rotaviruses in Uttarakhand and Nagaland states, India

The present study describes the distribution of RV in bovine and human population from Uttarakhand and North eastern region of India. Group A rotavirus (RVA) was detected in 17.33% and 15.68% diarrhoeic cases from bovine and humans, respectively. All bovine RVA isolates were long electropherotypes whereas, in human RVA isolates both long and short electropherotypes were detected. Genotyping by multiplex RT-PCR revealed presence of G3 and G10 genotypes in bovine and G1 and G3 in humans. Among P types, P[1] and P[11] in bovine and P[4] and P[8] in human were detected. The G and P type combinations present were G3P[11], G10P[1], G3P[1]P[11],  G10P[1]P[11],  G3G10P[1]P[11], G3G6G10P[1] and G3G6G10P[11] in bovine, while G1P[4], G3P[8] and G1G3P[8] in human samples

Determination and expression of genes for resistance to blast (Magnaporthe oryza) in Basmati and non-Basmati indica rices (Oryza sativa L.)

One hundred and twenty two (122) genotypes of Basmati and non-Basmati Indica rice genotypes were evaluated for expression of resistance against blast disease under induced epiphytotic conditions. Disease severity (%) and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) parameters were used for screening the blast resistance. Only 13 genotypes expressed resistance against the blast disease. Nine genotypes carried blast resistance genes but, were susceptible under induced epiphytotic conditions. The rice genotype VLD-61 had no resistance genes; however, it expressed strong resistance against blast. An empirical breeding strategy for development of blast resistant improved varieties of rice was also discussed.Keywords: Magnaporthe oryzae, restriction digestion, molecular breeding, Basmati riceAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(26), pp. 4098-410

Climate vulnerability assessment in semi-arid and arid region of Rajasthan, India: An enquiry into the disadvantaged districts

This paper assesses the district level climate vulnerability in the state of Rajasthan using largescale data on climate and socio-economic variables.More than thirty indicators segregated into four components of exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity and crop production loss were combined to develop a composite index of vulnerability and homogenous districts were clustered into three categories, viz.low, medium and high.Wide inter-district variations were observed across the calculated indices. The result reveals that highest production losses occurred in Ganganagar district followed by Hanumangarh and Bharatpur. Pali was least exposed to the climatic variability, whereas Bundi had the maximum exposure.Jaisalmer rated the maximum sensitivity level. Further, Pratapgarh followed by Jaisalmer and Banswara had the lowest degree of adaptive capacity. On the whole, districts like Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Ganganagar, Bundi, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Alwar, Baran and Pratapgarh exhibit high level of vulnerability to climatic change. While on the other spectrum Sirohi district was least vulnerable due to lower exposure, sensitivity, crop production loss and high adaptive capacity. The analysis, suggests the need for prioritizing vulnerable areas to arrest regional imbalances by encouraging need/location based interventions for moderating the degree of vulnerability, whilst making agro-ecosystem in Rajasthan resilient to climatic aberrations

Effect of Different Auxins Alone and Mixture of Benzene Aminopurine (BAP) and Kinetin (Kn) Along with Auxin 2,4-D on In Vitro Growth and Multiplication of Callus in B5 Medium Derived from Embryonic Cotyledon Excised Explants of Ashwagandha (Cultivated)

ABSTRACT Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) belongs to the member of family Solanaceae, having enormous aromatic properties and medicinal properties, has been included in an ancient (early) text of Ayurveda. It is very useful as an, contraceptive, amoebocide, bactericide, abortifacient, anodyne, and diuretic. But the risks of fungal infections are very high in these plants. Due to its over use this plants is going towards extinction so in vitro microprogation is a best method to protect this plant as well as to produced value added compounds in a very short time without any external environmental hazards. Higher percentage of in vitro morphogenic response was exhibited by explants mature embryo followed by explants mature cotyledon leaves. Half B5 medium (gamborg medium) with NAA, IBA, 2,4-Di-chlorophenyl acetic acid (2,4-D), BAP, Kinetin (Kn) and Sucrose (5% w/v) was employed either separately or in mixture. Cotyledonary leaves are generally produces callus in callus induction media and after several sub culturing its produces shoots and roots in shoot and root induction media. Regenerated plantlets were obtained successfully in the field after hardening. Mostly for in vitro organogenesis MS medium has been employed bus it has been also done in B5 medium with cotyledonary leave's explants of Withania somnifera