A formula to grow organic paddy successfully

Traditional varieties are resistant to drought and infestations

Organic farming is not something new to the farmers. Several types of organic farming are being practiced all over the country. But, in recent years it has been getting a lot of attention from researchers, policy makers, scientists and farmers. Paddy farmers in the delta districts of Tamil Nadu predominantly use chemical fertilizers for cultivating their crops during the Kharif and Rabi seasons.

Several hardships : Of late, many of these farmers have been facing several hardships from unpredictable monsoon, decreasing or stagnant prices, ground water depletion, increasing labour and chemical fertilizer costs. According to Mr. Balaji Shankar, an organic paddy farmer in Mayiladuthurai district of Tamil Nadu, in chemical farming, farmers increase fertilizer application hoping for a higher yield and profit. They do not realize that by applying urea and potash, the soil becomes hard and loses its porous nature. The same land requires more water for cultivation to make it loose and farmers dig deeper bore wells for getting water (deep borewells and urea increase soil and water salinity).

Reducing input costs :"What our farmers need to know is a success formula which reduces input cost and at the same time gives good yield," he argues. Outlining his paddy cultivatation Mr. Balaji says, "I plant only Kharifa (during Aug-Jan) and rice fallow gram. I do not plant Rabi. From April to August, the land is ploughed two times and Daincha is planted and used for in-situ ploughing," he explains. Only native varieties such as kitchidi samba or ponni (these are Tamil names) are cultivated. These varieties are resistant to diseases and can with stand drought as well as floods and also give a good yield of 1,200 kg 1,400 kg per acre with very little inputs, he noted. About 15kg of seeds are required for sowing in the nursery. The seedlings are transplanted early (when around 21 days-old instead of the traditional 30-40 days). About two seedlings are planted in the main field at a spacing of 15x18 cm. (This reduces both seed and labour cost, while transplanting, according to Mr. Balaji). "Since I plant only Kharif, this allows me to plan my transplanting early before the monsoon. Once traditional varieties are well established in the soil, even the worst flood cannot damage them. There may be some yield loss but never a crop loss," he says.

Manual weeding : After the seedlings stabilize the field is allowed to dry (to facilitate tillering). Manual weeding is done once after 30 days of transplanting and whenever necessary. After harvest, the produce is not sold as paddy, but dried, stored, milled on a monthly basis and sold as raw rice to customers. Organic paddy has higher out turn (60 per cent) and about 900-1000 kg of raw rice is milled from an acre's produce. "I am selling my organic rice at Rs. 29 per kg, which gives me a gross revenue of Rs. 29,000 per acre. My expenditure for an acre is: cultivation: Rs. 3,000, harvesting: Rs. 2,000, processing & dispatch etc: Rs. 4,000. This gives me a net income of Rs. 20,000 per acre. If a farmer has six acres, he can sell 500 kg of raw rice per month, and get a monthly income of 10,000 per month," he says.

Rice: more silica in soil reduces arsenic uptake

Two proteins in rice are responsible for transporting arsenite from soil

Scientists in Japan have cracked the reason why rice is particularly efficient in assimilating arsenic from paddy soils. The findings reported in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal have particular relevance to West Bengal and Bangladesh where arsenic poisoning is seen.

Arsenic is a carcinogen and is present in the ground water. It is also taken up by rice plants grown in paddy fields irrigated by the ground water. Apart from explaining the reason for rice being highly efficient in assimilating arsenic, the scientists have also put out a possible way of preventing rice plants from taking up arsenic in the first place.

Affinity for arsenic : The paper states that "Arsenic concentrations in rice grains are often high enough to cause concern even in uncontaminated soils containing background levels of arsenic." This is because rice has a particular affinity for and efficiency in arsenic assimilation compared with other cereal crops. The scientists have found two plant proteins that primarily transport arsenite from the soil. Both transporter proteins are expressed in the roots. While one protein (Lsi1) is the port of entry for arsenite from the soil to the roots, the other protein (Lsi2) controls the flow of arsenite from the roots to the stalk and grain. The scientists, who used mutant paddy, found that when the Lsi1 transporter was knocked out, the arsenite in the shoots and roots were 71 per cent and 53 per cent lower respectively when compared to wild-type rice.

Silica transporatation :Both the proteins that transport arsenite are primarily meant for transporting silica from the soil to the shoots via the roots. And the scientists found that in the presence of silica in the soil, uptake of arsenite by rice was reduced. "Since silicic acid and arsenite are transported by the same transporters, they have competition during uptake. When silica is rich, the uptake of arsenite will be decreased. We did not compare the preference," noted Dr. Jian Feng Ma in an email communication to this correspondent.

Dr. Ma is from the Research Institute for Bioresources, Okayama University, Japan, and is the led author. "We have not done soil experiment, but we did water culture. We found that when silica is present in the nutrient solution, the arsenite accumulation was significantly decreased," she added. After finding that silicic acid interferes with arsenite uptake, the authors suggest that "….ensuring sufficient silicon availability in soil is likely to suppress arsenite accumulation in rice." Silica is normally taken up by the roots in the form of silicic acid. It gets accumulated in the form of silicon in the leaf blades and sheaths. Its accumulation in the husk of the grains helps protect the husk from diseases and excess transpiration.

Department of BIOTECHNOLOGY, MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Block-2, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003

Call for pre-proposals on formulation of microbial consortia of agriculturally beneficial microorganisms

Research since the last few decades has clearly demonstrated that microorganisms possess a great potential to enhance plant growth and development through various mechanisms, such as nutrient transformation, nutrient mobilization and production of biologically active compounds, either by having symbiotic association with plants or by effective colonisation of rhizosphere. The need to harness this potential in a predictable manner is being increasingly realized since the turn of this century. When we succeed in this endeavor, our dependence on inorganic fertilizers to supply nutrients and xenobiotics to control pests and diseases would decrease and this in turn would result in a clean environment.

The Department of Biotechnology considers that the development of consortium of microorganisms with proven ability of plant growth promotion is an important step in this direction. This effort appears to be most ideal since microbial consortium consisting of microbes with different biochemical and physiological capabilities could be introduced into root zone soil simultaneously , which permits interactions among themselves and will lead to the establishment of a stable and effective rhizosphere community. Scientists/Researchers interested to pursue research work in areas such as, the development of microbial consortium, the development of suitable formulations for field application, standardization in filed application methodology, evaluation of formulation of microbial consortium under multi-location/ on-farm-trial and monitoring the persistence of members of microbial consortium in rhizosphere are encouraged.

Fifteen copies of your concept papers (not more than 10 pages) which should include title of the concept , its preliminary proof, major, objectives/ milestones, expected deliverables/ outcomes along with proof of having expertise in form of publications in high impact factor journals, lowest amount of the budget which you need, projects in hand and association with industry , name of the PI and Co-PI with address and affiliation may be submitted positively by 15th July, 2008 by post to : Dr.R.R.Sinha, Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, Block-2. 6th Floor, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road , New Delhi - 110003.

Honour for Wastewater Treatment Pioneer:
Tomorrow the international environmental community will honour Gatze Lettinga by conferring on him the prestigious 2007 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The Tyler Prize is one of the leading awards presented in the fields of environmental sciences, energy and medicine. This prize for the Dutch scientist is special for many reasons. At this present time when patenting products and inventions has become the order of the day and is projected as the only means to further research and development, it comes as a pleasant surprise that there was a scientist who developed a technology in 1972 and made it available to the society sans any patent.

Concept open for all : "The… Concept it still completely open for everyone, particularly also to the citizens in developing countries, and that is what I wanted and still want, Lettinga was quoted as saying in the Water and Wastewater.com.Lettinga was based in Wageningen University, the Netherlands, when he developed the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) technology to treat industrial and domestic wastewater.Today, his technology is used across the world and more so in the developing countries, including India. Lettinga technology is used in more than 70 per cent of anaerobic wastewater treatment by different industries.It was originally designed to treat wastewater of the sugar-beet industry in the Netherlands.

Simple concept:The technology is based on a simple concept. Wastewater is made to flow into a tank in an upward direction.The anaerobic bacteria present in the sludge bed come in contact with the wastewater. The bacteria are so chosen that they exhibit very special characteristics of forming granules (pellets) of 0.5 to 2 mm diameter. The bacteria encapsulate the wastewater substances that are to be degraded. The heavy granules settle to the bottom despite the wastewater moving in an upward direction.The highlight of the technology is ensuring the right choice of bacteria to maximize the granule formation and its settling down than allowing them to be dispersed all along the tank.

Four stages:The anaerobic degradation produces methane gas as a by-product. It is produced at the end of a four-stage process of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and finally the methanogenesis. In the methanogenesis, carbondioxide and water are produced in addition to water.This gas moves upward, enhancing the mixing of the wastewater present in the tank.The device provides 75 per cent to 90 per cent reduction in BOD. BOD - biochemical (biological) oxygen demand- is a test used to measure the concentration of biodegradation organic matter (carbon source) present in a sample of water. It can be used to infer the general quality of the water and its degree of pollution by biodegradable organic matters. As we know that the increase in organic matter in waste water leads to an increase in pollution of water we have to remove this organic matter content to purify the water and if we have removed 75 to 90 per cent BOD it means that 75 to 90 per cent of organic matter has been removed from water.If the organic matter is not removed from waste water and if this water is dumped in any river body then the presence of the organic matter reduces the oxygen content of the water thus leading to the death of other aquatic animals which are used by humans as food. Higher the BOD higher is the oxygen demand to decompose the organic matter in wastewater.

Removing impurities: According to Mr. A. Vijay Bharat Sastri Environmental Engineer, R&D, UPL Environmental Limited, Vadodara, biologically treated waste water may still have some impurities which are removed in post treatment. After such treatment the waste water can be finally discharged in any water body without causing any harm to the aquatic life of the water body.The effluent from the reactor contains sloughed (detached biomass) biological growth, which has to be separated which may otherwise increase the turbidity of the wastewater and the water source in which it is dumped. Hence post treatment is required in this system.

Great opportunity: What makes UASB stand out is the great opportunity to use the methane that is produced as a by-product, particularly in the developing countries. It is in total contrast to the energy intensive aerobic wastewater treatment technologies. The UASB thus solves two problems. First, it treats industrial wastewater and second, it produces renewable energy. UASB technology is suitable in a developing world urban context as it is efficient, simple, low-cost, needs low capital and maintenance costs and has low land requirements.

Source: THE HINDU • THURSDAY, April 19,2007. Kyoto protocol operational:

Montreal: The Kyoto protocol became fully operational on Wednesday after a U.N. climate conference here adopted the final rules setting out the functioning of the accord to limit pollution blamed for global warming. Under the accord, 34 countries have agreed to limit emissions of greenhouse gases till 2012. The protocol was negotiated in 1997.