Research Papers

 Rice is the main crop cultivated in the State and several indigenous technologies are being used by farmers for seed germination, preventing the crop from insect/pest attack in the field as well as for storage.

This approach is based on the integration of readily available remote sensing, national crop productivity and land use statistics and weather data.

Tribal habitat and rich primitive culture covers many traditions and fish is an integral part of the tribal food habit since times immemorial in this region. The life of tribes mainly depends on naturally available foods which can rarely be reaped in other places. The fishing techniques are specialized according to structure, size of stream, season and species of fishes intended to be harvested.

The WHO guidelines for drinking water quality aim to protect public health and the key way to ensure this is through the adoption of Water Safety Plans (WSP). WSP includes setting of health targets, risk analysis and its assessment to identify priority hazardous scenarios and management of the risk.

The quality of drinking water is a vital element of public health and well-being. The most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply is through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply from catchment to consumer.

WHO guidelines on water quality term these approaches as water safety plans (WSPs), developed to organize, systematize and apply management practices in drinking-water quality.

 Stating that modern agriculture increases production cost, the author observes that productivity of the same crop was higher in pre-British times than what it is now with modern agriculture techniques.

As these old agricultural techniques have not been scientifically researched there is a lot of scepticism which also results in them not being promoted. The paper lists out agricultural techniques, which result in sustainable high yields and are accepted by the scientific community.

The following article is based on a field experiment in International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), where low cost farming systems that involve use of biological inputs obtained from the field is compared with conventional farming.

Further, the authors offer suggestions for future demonstration and verification experiments, to study the virtues of organic  farming.

This paper was presented at the first National Symposium on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) – Present Status and Future Prospects held in 2006.  The parameters include thirteen soil properties which included six related to cultureable microorganisms, three root-related parameters and yield.

Two of the four systems are low-cost farming methods which are based on traditional and scientific knowledge on using crop residues, farm-waste, compost, Gliricidia lopping, bacterial inoculants, and herbal extracts as nutrients to nourish the soil, and as biopesticides to manage pests.

The third system is conventional agriculture which is the "control" and receives chemical input as suggested by research institutions depending on crop type. The fourth is a combination of the  first three.

This paper in the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge aims to describe indigenous pest management (IPM) practices being followed by farmers of Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand and their belief behind following them.With those practices, farmers would manage pests effectively without deteriorating environment. These practices could be very important if incorporated into integrated pest management research to enrich the research process and make it more relevant for the farmers.