NASA Traces Ice Flow in Antarctica And Creates Ground Breaking Map

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Rashid Faridi

Researchers at NASA recently created the first complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica. The map is considered timely as it will help track future sea-level increases due to climate change.

 “The map points out something fundamentally new: that ice moves by slipping along the ground it rests on,” said Thomas Wagner from NASA. “That’s critical knowledge for predicting future sea level rise. It means that if we lose ice at the coasts from the warming ocean, we open the tap to massive amounts of ice in the interior.”

 The researchers created this map using integrated radar observations from a consortium of international satellites.

Links and Sources:

Geospatial World

Info: NASA

Image :NASA

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The Age of the Moon and the Earth:They may be younger than originally thought

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Rashid Faridi

How old the Moon and Earth?  New research using a technique that measures the isotopes of lead and neodymium in lunar crustal rocks shows that the moon and Earth may be millions of years younger than originally thought.  The common estimate of the moon’s age is as old as 4.5 billion years old (roughly the same age as the solar system) as determined by mineralogy and chemical analysis of moon rocks gathered during the Apollo missions. However, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Lars Borg and international collaborators have analyzed three isotopic systems, including the elements lead, samarium and neodymium found in ancient lunar rocks, and determined that the moon could be much younger than originally estimated. In fact, its age may be 4.36 billion years old.

The age of the Earth is traditionally thought of as 4.54 billion years (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%). This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples.

The ages of Earth and Moon rocks and of meteorites are measured by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals and that decay with half lives of 700 million to more than 100 billion years to stable isotopes of other elements. These dating techniques, which are firmly grounded in physics and are known collectively as radiometric dating, are used to measure the last time that the rock being dated was either melted or disturbed sufficiently to rehomogenize its radioactive elements.

Ancient rocks exceeding 3.5 billion years in age are found on all of Earth’s continents. The oldest rocks on Earth found so far are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake (4.03 Ga) and the Isua Supracrustal rocks in West Greenland (3.7 to 3.8 Ga), but well-studied rocks nearly as old are also found in the Minnesota River Valley and northern Michigan (3.5-3.7 billion years), in Swaziland (3.4-3.5 billion years), and in Western Australia (3.4-3.6 billion years).  They have been dated by a number of radiometric dating methods and the consistency of the results give scientists confidence that the ages are correct to within a few percent.

The oldest dated moon rocks,  have ages between 4.4 and 4.5 billion years and provide a minimum age for the formation of our nearest planetary neighbor. Thousands of meteorites, which are fragments of asteroids that fall to Earth, have been recovered. These primitive objects provide the best ages for the time of formation of the Solar System.  The results show that the meteorites, and therefore the Solar System, formed between 4.53 and 4.58 billion years ago.

The research appears in the August 17 online edition of the journal, Nature.

Links and Sources:

For further information:  https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2011/Aug/NR-11-08-02.html

Photo:  NASA

Source:ENN

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India Gears to Meet Agro Challenges and For New Agricultural Revolution

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Rashid Faridi

Changing Gears for Rainbow Revolution

Dr. S. Ayyappan*

In view of the emerging challenges and threats to agriculture sector, vis-à-vis national food security, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed a strategic framework to improve food security, enhance opportunities for inclusive growth, augment competitiveness of Indian agriculture and create adequate and quality human resources to address the concerns. Some of the major concerns include, natural resources degradation, increasing biotic and abiotic pressures, declining input use efficiency, post-harvest losses, decreasing profitability in farming, quality human resource and farm extension. To deal with the challenges effectively, ICAR is coordinating, guiding and managing research, education and extension in agriculture, including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences, in the country. It has a vast network with 97 ICAR institutes, 54 state agricultural universities; five deemed universities and one Central Agricultural University and 592 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) spread across the country. The research programmes under umbrella of the ICAR are designed and undertaken for harnessing power of science that ensures food, nutrition and livelihood security for all.

The comprehensive initiatives taken by the Council have led to notable accomplishments in natural resource management, input use efficiency, climate resilience, secondary agriculture and economic transformation of farmers through technological interventions. The year 2010-11 has been agriculturally rewarding as we have observed record food grain production touching 242 million tonnes in farm season (July-June) according to the 4th advance estimates released recently. The food grains comprise rice, coarse-cereals and pulses. The record output was largely because of a sharp rise in production of wheat to 86 million tonnes against 81 million tonnes in the year before. The record high oilseed production of 31 million tonnes is another notable accomplishment to cheer. Further, a high production in horticulture, 234.4 million tonnes could also be achieved through policy and technological support.

The bygone year has thrown many challenges also. These include perceptible climate change, as seen by the dry spells in the Eastern India, despite normal rainfalls across the country; degrading land and water environment; need for quality inputs; emerging problem of agricultural labour; and post-harvest losses across the commodities. It was here that the ICAR provided, both directions and solutions, in terms of crop varieties suitable for both drought and submergence; defined elements of fertilizer application, based on the nutrient deficiencies; farm mechanization for both field and horticultural crops; and developed clear estimates of post-harvest losses of various crops and commodities, as the basis for formulating future approaches. The paradigm shift from ‘primary to secondary agriculture’ was focused in our discussions and research process, as was demonstrated through the projects in the value chain component of the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP); that is planned to be further enlarged in the coming years. A parallel development has been the establishment of agri-incubators, a new concept in the Indian agriculture; expected to develop entrepreneurship in a big way. In our efforts at institutionalizing the research extension continuum, the ‘Farm Innovators’ meet held during the year, the second in the series, added a new dimension to our approach of innovative agriculture.

Among new projects, a National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture is a noteworthy one launched with the objective to assess impact of climate change on the agriculture and allied sectors, and for evolving cost-effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. The Project has a budget outlay of Rs 350 crore for XI Plan; out of which Rs 200 crore is allocated for 2010-11, and Rs 150 crore for 2011-12 on the research infrastructure, capacity-building and on-farm demonstrations of available climate-resilient technologies.

During the year 2010-11, 60 varieties/hybrids of crops including major food crops of rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet and pulses were released/ recommended for cultivation in different agro-climatic regions of country. During the year, 629 tonnes of nucleus seed, 9,554 tonnes of breeder seed, 7,745 tonnes of foundation seed, 3,471 tonnes of certified seeds and 10,443 tonnes of truthfully labeled seed were produced for large scale multiplication to ensure timely supply of quality seeds to farmers.

To address the problem of decreasing soil and water productivity, the GIS based soil fertility maps, using soil-test data was prepared for 500 districts spread over 21 states of India. The data have revealed that soils of most of the districts have low to medium amount of nitrogen and phosphorus and medium to high amount of potassium. Existing ridge-and-furrow system of irrigation was modified for in-situ rain water harvesting (10% than the earlier 1% of rain), which increased castor yield by 30%. A decision support system was developed for facilitating location specific nutrient management.

With a view to enhance profitability and livelihood security, integrated farming is being promoted in all the ecological regions with the desired technological backstopping. An Integrated Farming System Component Selection Model is found useful for selection of the components of the integrated farming system based on the expected profit under the prevailing constraints, and also for suggesting beneficial components from profit as well as land and water productivity point of view.

To improve the quality and productivity of livestock population, artificial insemination is being standardized and adopted in field situations. Successful pregnancy from artificial insemination with extended semen is reported for the first time in Indian dromedary camels. The first mithun calf was born at farm-gate level through artificial insemination using cryo-preserved semen from genetically superior mithun bulls. Semen collection by ‘Gloved Hand Method’ and AI technique were standardized for pigs, and by using AI technology, highest litter size (15 piglets) at birth was recorded from a Ghungroo sow in the farm.

With repositioning of its approach towards entrepreneurship and livelihood security, the ICAR has made a strong commitment for socio-economic transformation of the Indian rural population. The research programmes, educational initiatives and extension activities have been reoriented to meet the objective. Efforts are being made to ensure free flow of knowledge, crossing all barriers on the way. The ICAR has adopted open-access policy for its highly-rated research journals and other literature of importance. The website (www.icar.org.in) has transformed into a treasure house of agricultural information and knowledge for various categories of stakeholders. On an average, more than 2, 00,000 visits are recorded per month from around 166 countries reflecting the global presence of Indian agriculture. Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) is providing free online access to more than 2,900 international journals and 124 libraries of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS). During the year 2010-11, 64 patent applications were filed and 10 were granted making the total as 481 and 58 respectively.

As a special thrust to North-East region, Knowledge Information Repository in Agriculture for North-East has been launched by the ICAR with a mission to empower the agricultural production system of North-East region with right technology and methodology emphasizing innovative approach and solutions. It will act as a platform to foster linkages among partners and collaborate with public, private, state and regional organizations functioning in the region.

Partnerships grew at the national level and also across the globe with the projected Borlaug Institute for South Asia and enhanced Indo-African and India-Afghanistan Fellowships in Agricultural Universities. An ICAR–Industry meet was also convened in New Delhi in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which received an overwhelming response from the private sector. Twenty-five new Units were added to the existing 220 Units in 49 universities to develop entrepreneurship skills among students. Niche Area of Excellence was also supported at 30 locations to achieve global competence in agricultural research and education.

Under the ICAR award scheme, two new prestigious awards have been instituted, namely ICAR Norman Borlaug Award and ICAR Challenge Award. The total numbers of awards to be given annually in specific categories have been increased from 13 to 22. Similarly the award money has also been enhanced in most of the categories.

The ICAR has repositioned its approach in the formulation of 12th five year plan to bring a demand driven and technology led revolution in the country. The Council will focus more on the commodities and the areas where private sector would be reluctant to venture. Secondary and specialty agriculture and the strength inter-departmental platforms will be harnessed to sustain the benefits of agricultural research and development. At national level, initiatives such as National Agricultural Education Project, National Agricultural Entrepreneurship Project, National Agricultural Science Foundation and National Agricultural Innovation Foundation have been envisaged to further strengthen and accelerate the process of transformation. However, in all these initiatives the Council is making a forward march with Farmers First approach.

The research and development programmes during the year have armed ICAR with preparedness to meet future challenges, especially of prospective global climate change vis-à-vis depleting and degrading natural resources. We envision that innovations in agriculture would transform existing slowdown in agriculture sector into a vibrant and competitive sector by harnessing untapped opportunities in domestic and global markets. The Council firmly believes that agricultural research and development would augment farmers’ income, generate employment opportunities, conserve natural resources, restrict imports, promote exports and increase value addition for higher and inclusive agricultural growth.

Appropriately backed by frontier sciences and techniques, a surge in production and productivity of major commodities is on the way to realize the dream of rainbow revolution.(PIB Features)

*Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Source:PIB

Posted in BIODIVERSITY, India | Leave a comment

Need of Healthy Organic Food Network

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Rashid Faridi

Guest Post by Derek Singleton

Most of us would eat better if we could afford to. I know I would.
Even though I’m a proponent of organic farms, grocers and food, I tend to lose
my organic appetite when I see the hefty price tag that comes along with it. It
may just be a few cents here or there, but multiplied over an entire bill – and
then multiplied over weeks and months – the difference adds up.

So what makes organic food more expensive? A major factor is scale. Because
most organic farms don’t operate at economies of scale, the amount of man hours
required for harvesting and post-harvesting activities is much greater than
conventional methods. For the same reason, the cost of marketing and
distributing organic food is higher as well.

The national options really boil down to two distributors: Tree of Life and
United Natural Foods. With them being the only major distributors, products
often get discontinued and then we have difficulty stocking the item.” – Dan
Gilotte, Wheatsville Co-op

In addition to scale, organic food also suffers from an inefficient
distribution network that’s still largely based on word-of-mouth business. To
manage the organic distribution network, distributors will need to adopt
technology that automatically informs grocers of available inventory and
pricing. At the same time, grocers will need to invest in technology that allows
them to find the right organic distributor at the best price.

Further pushing the price up is the fact that the demand for organic food far
outweighs the available supply. All things combined – scale, distribution,
supply, and cost – the consequences are creating unequal access to quality food
for many Americans.

The Health-Wealth Divide: Consumption of Healthy Food

The high price of organic food is a strange irony. Today, we’re paying a
premium to get food the way it used to be grown and harvested in our
grandparents’ generation, before agribusiness and genetic modification came to
utterly dominate our food supply. The problem of unequal food access has
resulted in a phenomenon known as food deserts, or regions where there’s little
to no access to healthy food markets. So if it’s still difficult for Americans
to access conventionally produced food, then it’s no wonder that the challenge
to distribute healthy organic food is great.

The federal government’s 2010 update to the food pyramid may make it even
more difficult to get the proper nutritional value – calling for Americans to
eat more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium. According to reporter
Donna Gordon Blankinship’s recent article, these changes are expected to add
several hundred dollars to the average American’s grocery bill. In her
article, researchers estimate that roughly 15 percent of Americans, or 49
million people, make food decisions based on cost alone. Thus a healthy,
well-balanced diet is pushed further out of reach for many. As the income
gap between rich and poor continues to widen, this problem is likely to be
exacerbated.

There are, however, some encouraging trends in the organics food market. A survey by the Organic
Trade Association found that sales revenue from organic food in the U.S. had
exploded to $25 billion by 2009 – 25 times that of 1990. This kind of growth is
impressive, and it’s certainly progress toward reaching scale in the industry,
but it’s all relative. For perspective, Americans spend roughly $1 trillion on
food, indicating that industrial and processed food still own the lion’s share
of the market.

So what can be done in the interim while organic food scales up production?
In taking a look at how a few successful health food grocers handle their
distribution, we can see how distribution chains can be made more efficient to
help reduce food prices.

The Organics Distribution Market: The Austin Example

Austin is known for being home to many things – a hip culture, blues guitar,
South by Southwest music festival and a hotbed of technology. It’s also home to
a health-conscious group of shoppers who love eating organic foodstuffs and
“going local.” It’s no surprise then that Austin is the birthplace of Whole Foods Market, one of the
nation’s largest and most successful organic health food grocers.

The abundance of health-savvy shoppers has fueled a mini boom of organic
markets in Austin as well. I caught up with Dan Gillotte, the general manager of
Wheatsville Co-op, a successful local
health food store, to discuss how they manage distribution operations.

According to Gillotte, managing packaged items isn’t that tricky. These
organic products tend to have a lengthy shelf life and are fairly easy to buy in
bulk and keep in stock. It’s the produce that’s the real thorn in a store
owner’s side. Organic produce is what the industry refers to as “loss leaders,”
or products that draw shoppers into a store but net small profits.

Gillotte explained that his store often has to turn to local producers in
order to secure the right produce. In Texas, this is especially difficult given
the fact that summer days usually hover around 100 degrees and nothing can grow.
Other regions suffer similar problems of seasonality. Beyond the national
distributors, Gillotte explained, it turns into a relationship-based business.
Even in 2011, most organic food producers are found by word-of-mouth.

A better and more efficient use of technology is the single most important
thing organic food distributors need today. They are stuck using comparatively
archaic methods of communicating their available supply with most transactions
conducted over the phone or by email.” – Stephen Jennings, NaturalPro Ltd.
Consulting

However, these issues aren’t isolated to smaller storefronts. Stephen
Jennings, Director of NaturalPro Ltd.
Consulting, explained that even large grocers like Whole Foods primarily
source through word-of-mouth transactions. And it’s astounding that a company
like Whole Foods – with sales exploding from from $1.9
billion to $8.5 billion between 2001 to 2010 – still relies on such a basic
means of sourcing their organic food supply.

Much like mom-and-pop operations, Whole Foods tends to streamline their
sourcing operations with regional buying managers that are tapped into the
community. The problem isn’t that Whole Foods lacks the technology to better
manage operations, it’s that their organic suppliers are caught in a technology
gap.

Currently, most organic distributors (except the national ones) don’t have
methods for automatically indicating their supply levels, pricing or
coordinating pick-ups and drop-offs. Without some level of automation in their
processes, organic food distributors are caught in an inefficient game of cat
and mouse where each has to guess the appropriate time to broker a deal.

This – along with the general lack of suppliers – can lead to fluctuations in
the organic food market and result in higher prices for the consumer. However,
these supply fluctuations and high prices can be tempered by taking a more
strategic and technological approach to organic distribution.

Creating A More Efficient Distribution Network

The success and expansion of healthy food chains like Whole Foods and
Wheatsville Co-op is critical to deflating the price and increasing the
accessibility of healthy, organic foods at the consumer and wholesale level.
Smart use of technology will play a pivotal role in making this happen. Here are
a few more ways that the organics market can improve distribution methods.

  1. Close the Communication Gap – Most distributors that specialize in
    organic distribution don’t have the technology infrastructure to create smart,
    efficient distribution routes. Distribution software can
    help select optimal delivery routes, manage the status and location of produce
    in real-time and ensure on-time delivery.
  2. Better Manage Supplier Relationships – Finding the right supplier
    at the right price is critical regardless of the kind of business you run. Using
    procurement
    software     can make the task of finding an organic distributor simpler.
    Meanwhile, it makes it easier for organic distributors to indicate supply levels
    and desired pricing schemes. Grocers can also use the software to compare prices
    and delivery times for distributors in order to choose the cheapest, most
    efficient carrier.
  3. Aggregate Purchasing Activities – Collectives often buy in bulk
    because it makes purchasing otherwise expensive items affordable. Organic
    grocers should band together to purchase in bulk for multi-location drops
    similar to the way collectives manage purchasing. One of the reasons that
    organics remain expensive is because each storefront purchases only for
    themselves. If organic stores banded together, they could realize much greater
    wholesale cost savings.

Source

Posted in Ecosystem, Food, Guest Post | Leave a comment