Preserving indigenous milch cattle
By Raman Narang and Deepti
DAIRYING has an eminent and sacrosanct place in the Indian economy. Next to agriculture, livestock is the largest source of income and employment for rural population.

Morel in warmer climate!
By Lalit Sharma
COMMON morel or the sponge mushroom, a native of the high altitude north-western Himalayas which thrives under the cold climate conditions of the temperate zone was recently found growing in the much warmer climate of Una district in Galua mohalla located on a hillock which is the highest point of the town.

Indian farming traditions under threat
By Vandana Shiva
Many agricultural festivals are celebrated with the germination of seeds. Renewal and continuity is the essence and meaning of seed.

Record production of apple in HP
The twin attack of mite and the dreaded morsonina fungus notwithstanding, Himachal Pradesh recorded the highest production of apple of the century during the last season.

Preserving indigenous milch cattle
By Raman Narang and Deepti

DAIRYING has an eminent and sacrosanct place in the Indian economy. Next to agriculture, livestock is the largest source of income and employment for rural population. India with 271 million cattle and buffalo has 19 per cent of the world's total livestock, constitute more than the population of Europe and Australia put together. At present there are 26 recognised breads of cattle and eight buffalo breeds. Of late the role of indigenous breeds has been felt.

A number of indigenous farm animal breeds have been developed over the ages through natural selection in different agro-ecological zones. During the process of development such animals have developed remarkable tendency to withstand hot climatic stress and disease. Such well-defined cattle breeds merely constitute one-fifth of the country's total cattle population. The rest is an admixture or desi cattle.

Mostly indigenous or zebu cattle in the Indian subcontinent, Asia Pacific region and other tropical countries are low producing except for some important cattle breeds of Sahiwal, Red Singhi, Hariana Gir and Kankrej of India and Pakistan. These cattle breeds have been exported to adjoining countries and have been used in upgrading the local cattle stock for hardiness, heat and tick infestation quality as well as high butter fat content in milk.

The spread of Indian zebu cattle in foreign countries had been in vogue since the 19th century to Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Australia where zebu cattle germplasm was utilised to upgrade cattle for draught purpose.

Although rempant crossbreeding has a desired result in improving the milk production scenario, yet unfortunately its consequences are being felt now. A number of indigenous farm animal breeds are gradually getting genetically degraded and diluted because of unplanned breeding and introduction of exotic germplasm. As a result indigenous breeds are getting indangered at an alarming rate, while others are in the process of replacement by certain high-yielding strains. If this trend continue the invaluable native germplasm which is relatively better in resistance capacity to withstand stress, disease, food conversion and adaptation to local environment would grossly be depleted or even lost forever.

Collective efforts by all concerned organisations are needed to ensure the conservation of such threatened forms of farm diversity. Various techniques for cellular and genetic manipulation of mamalian eggs and embryos are now being employed in conserving genetic diversity. Such technology is reliable, long-lasting, convenient and economical. Technology having wider application in the frontier of preservation are as follows.

Cryo preservation of semen: The technique of semen preservation is now in practice and has been routinely used for improvement and divelopment of crossbreeds. However, the technique can only satisfy to conserve germplasm of male parent.

Oocyte preservation: This technique provides opportunity for conservation of female oocyte in the same way as male semen. The oocyte can be recovered by surgery, laparatomy or even from slaughtered female. Hence individual genome of male or female can be cryopreserved.

Embryo preservation and transfer: This technique has been developed to preserve a complete genome of a species and has distinguished role in conserving them. Embryos can be obtained by flushing the oviduct or the uterus by surgical or non-surgical methods. Such an embryo can be kept for longer durations and can be resurrected any time.

Preserving of ovaries: Preservation of slices of ovaries in liquid nitrogen is the new technology coming up for conservation. Ovaries sliced can be cryo-preserved for longer period of time and can be thawed when required to produce viable oocyte

Embroy splitting: This technique of manipulating embryos could be helpful in producing more number of animals from a few stored embryos of rare or endangered animals. This technique needs to be standardised, and the coming 21st century could see fruitful results in adopting technology for conservation of not only milch animals but also endangered wildlife species.

Conclusion: A number of indigenous milch breeds are gradually declining in population and are in the process of becoming extinct. A few of them are already on the verge of extinction. Immediate measures are needed to be taken to conserve these valuable genetic resources. As variation is a tool for genetic upgradation, such a tool should not be lost at any cost. Therefore, conservation is the key word in preserving the vast genetic diversity.

Morel in warmer climate!
By Lalit Sharma

COMMON morel or the sponge mushroom, a native of the high altitude north-western Himalayas which thrives under the cold climate conditions of the temperate zone was recently found growing in the much warmer climate of Una district in Galua mohalla located on a hillock which is the highest point of the town.

The species of the fungus family which is commonly known as “gucchi” in India is a table delicacy having high food value. It grows on soil rich in organic matter in dense deciduous forests on stumps and logs of decaying wood or leaves. The mycelium or more commonly referred to as the root of the fungus grows a few inches deep in the soil. The edible part protrudes from the soil under favourable conditions and is 2.5 inches to 12 inches in size. It is hollow and fleshy and gives the appearance of a sponge when young. On maturity, a network of ridges appears on the grey or brown surface of the fruit.

The optimum temperature required for morel to flourish is from 2°C to 15°C. It prefers shade and is found abundantly in higher altitudes. The food value is comparable to fish or meat.The fruit, in clusters was found growing in a shady place beneath a banana plantation on leave litter.

Biological studies were conducted on the species by Ms Prem Shukla, Head of the Department of Botany, Government Postgraduate College, Una. She confirmed that the species found growing in Una was indeed the “gucchi” which fetched a market price of about Rs 4000 per kg. According to her, the growth of the species in Una is unnatural and highly surprising as the morel has no seed for propagation.

Indian farming traditions under threat
By Vandana Shiva

Many agricultural festivals are celebrated with the germination of seeds. Renewal and continuity is the essence and meaning of seed.

But the culture of seed renewal and seed saving is seen as a a major block to market expansion by global seed corporations, and bodies like the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation - which imposes intellectual property rights on seed and genetic resources.

In 1988, the World Bank loaned India $ 150 million to make the seed industry more market responsive to global corporations. This was viewed as necessary because, as the project documents notes, ``in the self-pollinated crops, especially wheat and rice, farmer retention and farmer transfer accounted for much of the seed used, while some of the [new varieties] HYVs were inferior in grain quality to traditional types and thus lost favour among farmers’.

The growth of markets for corporate seeds is thus the main objective of “developing” the seed “industry”, because farmers saving their own seeds do not generate financial growth.

The fact that farmers in large parts of India prefer to retain and exchange seeds, outside the market framework, is not seen as an indicator of better viability of their own production and exchange network, but as the reason for a bigger push for commercialisation, with bigger loans and incentives to corporate producers and suppliers.

The seed thus represents capital with a simple biological obstacle - given the appropriate conditions, it reproduces itself and multiplies.

Modern plant breeding has primarily been an attempt to remove this obstacle, and the new biotechnologies are the latest tools for transforming what is simultaneously a “means of production” and “product” into mere “raw material”.

Globalisation of the seed supply is transforming seed from being an exhaustless source of renewal and nourishment into a costly, non-renewable commodity, to be purchased every year.

Sterility rather than fertility is being made the engineered characteristic of seed so that farmers are forced to buy seed every year. In place of the farmers praying “let this seed be exhaustless”, the seed corporations are evolving seeds embodying the Terminator Technology. Their prayer seems to be “let this seed be sterile, let germination be terminated, let seeds and farmers die, to let profits grow”.

The sterility of seed on a large scale is already a reality being experienced by Indian peasants who have been persuaded to give up their own seeds and buy costly corporate seeds through high profile advertising. With the promise of riches, the corporations are pushing them into debt. Now they are killing themselves.

Indian farmers have maintained a reliable and diverse seed supply over millennia. Today, the foundation of this sustainable and secure agriculture is threatened as global chemical corporations are invading the countryside, replacing agricultural diversity with vulnerable monocultures of hybrids and genetically engineered seeds which need more pesticides and herbicides. The entire justification for opening up the seed sector to multinationals has been the supply of better, more reliable seeds, and hence higher incomes for farmers. But corporate seed is failing frequently, so pushing farmers into debt. Last years many farmers committed suicide due to indebtedness linked to new hybrid seeds and the expensive chemical inputs.

Like groups in the UK and across Europe, the movement in India against genetic engineering is calling for stronger Biosafety regulation which ensures public participation and which assesses ecological impact, not merely agronomic performance of GMOs. Meanwhile, the movement has called for a five-year moratorium on the sale of genetically engineered seeds.

But it is not the “No to GMO” that is the real strength of the Indian movement. Its strength is in reclaiming farmers’ freedom by saving their varieties or indigenous seeds and conserving the cultural diversity of Indian food systems by the conservation of biological richness in agriculture.

— The Guardian

Record production of apple in HP

The twin attack of mite and the dreaded morsonina fungus notwithstanding, Himachal Pradesh recorded the highest production of apple of the century during the last season.

The final figures of production compiled by the Horticulture Department reveal that as many as 4.67 lakh tonnes of apple was produced in the state. It was 70,000 tonnes more than the previous highest production of 3.97 lakh tonnes recorded in the 1989 season.

While the state agencies procured about 78,000 tonnes of fruit under the market intervention scheme, the rest was sold in the open market.

While bulk of the procured fruit was sold in non-conventional apple markets in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and other far-off places, about 11,000 tonnes was processed by the HPMC.

Mr Narinder Bragta, Minister of Horticulture, said that despite the record production, the government ensured that there was no shortage of trucks and packing cases.

The total procurement cost came to Rs 29 crore while the sale of procured apple in the open market yielded Rs 4.50 crore. Apple worth Rs 2.5 crore was processed by the HPMC.

The experimental production of apple wine has yielded good results. The wine has already become popular. So far 30,000 bottles have been supplied to wholesalers and in all one lakh bottles were to be produced during the current financial year.— (TNS)

Wheat:

— Apply last irrigation to the normal sown wheat crop around March 15. However, the late sown wheat may be irrigated depending upon the weather conditons.

— By this time the plants affected with the flag smut disease become quite visible. These should be rouge and destroyed so as to reduce the inoculum in the field. Remove loose smut infected ears from the field kept for seed production.

— Check attack of aphids by spraying 150 ml of Rogor 30 EC or Anthio 25 EC or Metasystox 25EC or Nuvacron 36 SL in 80-100 litrers of water per acre.

— Army worm and gram pod borer larvae feed on developing grains of wheat. Control them by spraying 200 ml Nuvan 85 SL or 800ml of Ekalux 25 EC or 1.2 kg Sevin 50 WP in 100 litres of water per acre.

Summer pulses:

— Start sowing summer moong (SML 32 or SML 134) and summer mash (sathe mash i.e. Mash 414 or Mash 218) from the middle of March. Use 10 kg seed rate per acre for summer moong and 20 kg per acre for summer mash. Apply 11 kg of urea and 100 kg of superphosphate at the time of sowing. If mash or moong follows potato, then there is no need to apply and fertilisers to these crops.

— Weeds in summer moong can be controlled by spraying Bassalin 45 EC (Fluchloralin @ 600 ml/acre on well prepared seedbed and then sow crop on the same day or spray Stomp 30 EC (Pendimethalin) @ 1.0 litres/acre within two days of sowing. For spraying herbicides use 150-200 litres of water per acre.

Oilseeds:

— Protect pods of raya from alternaria blight by giving one spray of 0.25 per cent solution of Indofil M 45 (250 g in 100 litres of water).

— Check mustard aphid on raya/gobhi sarson by spraying 400 ml of Metasystox 25 EC or Rogor 30 EC/Thiodan 35 EC/Anthio 25 EC or Malathion 50 EC or 600 ml of Dursban/Coroban 20 EC or 100 ml of Dimecron 85 SL in 100 litres of water per acre. Spray the crop either early morning or evening to avoid killing of pollinators/natural enemies, etc.

— If the severe attack of hairy caterpiller/semi looper is seen in the sunflower crop, then spray 500 ml of Thiodan 35 EC or 200 ml Nuvan/Divap/Vapona 85 SL in 100 litres of water per acre. These insecticides will also control jassids and other sucking pests in case they appear.

Sugarcane:

— Complete sowing of sugarcane by the end of this month using recommended varieties i.e. CoJ-86, CoJ-83, CoP-211, CoP-64 (early maturing), CoJ-82, CoJ-84 for mid season and Co-1148 (late maturing) varieties.

— The seed selected for planting should be free from red rot, wilt, smut, ratoonstunting and grassy shoot diseases. Disinfect cane setts in 0.5 per cent (500 g in 100 litre of water). Agallol (3%) or 0.25% (250 g in 100 litres of water) solution of Aretan (6%) /Tafasan/Bagallol (6%)/Emican (6%).

— To check the attack of termite and early shoot borer to the germinated crop, sprinkle on cane setts in furrows at the time of sowing, 2 litres of Lindane 20 EC diluted in 500 litres of water or 7.5 kg granules of Sevidol 4:4G (Gamma BHC+Carbaryl) per acre.

— Application of Atrataf 50 WP (Atrazine)/Tafazine 50 WP (Simazine)/Sencor 70 WP (Metribuzin) or Hexuron 80 WP (Diuron) @ 800 g/acre as pre-emergence application provide effective control of annual grasses and broadleaf weeds.

— Sugarcane may be planted after applying 65 kg of urea per acre. Apply one-third N (30 kg N or 65 kg urea/acre) at the end of March to the autumn crop.

— One row of summer moong/summer mash or mentha can be intercropped without any adverse effect on the cane crop.

(Progressive Farming, PAU)