IASNOVA
Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative(SSI)
(Already asked in Prelims 2013)
Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative is an innovative method of sugarcane production using less seeds, less water and optimum utilization of fertilizers and land to achieve more yields.
The major principles that govern SSI :-
- Raising nursery in portrays using single budded chips
- Transplanting young seedlings (25-35 days old)
- Maintaining wider spacing (5×2 feet) in the main field
- Providing sufficient moisture through efficient water management technologies viz.,drip fertigation (sub or sub surface)
- Encouraging organic method of nutrient and plant protection measures
- Practicing intercropping with effective utilization of land.
Overall benefits
- Improved water use efficiency
- Optimum use of fertilizers favour balanced availability of nutrients
- Better aeration and more penetration of sunlight favours higher sugar content
- Reduced cost of cultivation and increased returns through intercropping
REED BED SYSTEM FOR TREATING INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER
Reed Bed System :Integrates plants and geomaterials to remove (by absorption and adsorption) pollutants from wastewater.
Typha – Cattail reed (Typha latifolia) is a perennial herbaceous plant effective in removing heavymetals and salts.Root exudates effectively immobilize heavy metals in the rhizosphere.
Water hyacinth : Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) effectively absorbs nitrate and phosphate besides heavymetals.
Vermiculite : A hydrous, silicate mineral with high cation exchange capacity adsorbs large amounts of heavymetals.
Advantages
- Removes heavymetals 90-100% from industrial wastewater
- Reduces BOD and COD (70-90%)
- Reduces TDS (>90%)
- Removes nitrate and phosphates (80-98%)
Applications :
To treat wastewaters from Tanneries, Dye & Textile and Paper & Pulp industries.
System of Rice Intensification
(Already asked in UPSC Prelims)
What is SRI?
The System of Rice Intensification, known as SRI — is an agro-ecological methodology for increasing the productivity of irrigated rice by changing the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients. SRI originated in Madagascar in the 1980s and is based on the cropping principles of significantly reducing plant population, improving soil conditions and irrigation methods for root and plant development, and improving plant establishment methods.
Benefits of SRI
- 20%-100% or more increased yields,
- up to a 90% reduction in required seed, and
- up to 50% water savings.
SRI principles and practices have been adapted for rainfed rice as well as for other crops (such as wheat, sugarcane and tef, among others), with yield increases and associated economic benefits.
Nutriseed Pack Technology
Nutriseed Pack Technology is a new method of crop production developed by the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, TNAU, Coimbatore.
In Nutriseed Pack technology each plant can be established by placing a Nutriseed Pack in soil. Nutriseed Pack contains seed at top, enriched manure in the middle and encapsulated fertilizer at bottom.
Nutriseed Pack gives support for each plant in the root zone in terms of optimum nutrient supply, biological activity and consequently enables the fullest utilization of nutrients by plants. There is no wastage of fertilizer nutrients with Nutriseed Packs.
PINK PIGMENTED FACULTATIVE METHYLOTROPS (PPFM)
PPFMs are aerobic, Gram-negative bacteria and, although they are able to grow on a wide range of multicarbon substrates, they are characterized by the capability to grow on one-carbon compounds such as formate, formaldehyde, and methanol as their sole carbon and energy source.
Beneficial effect on plant
- Fasten seed germination and seedling growth
- Accelerate vegetative growth
- Increase leaf area index and chlorophyll content
- Earliness in flowering, fruit set and maturation
- Improves fruit quality, color and seed weight
- Yield increase by 10%
- Mitigate drought
FRAGRANCE TESTING OF JASMINE USING ELECTRONIC NOSE TECHNOLOGY
Electronic Nose is a unique tool that is Neural Network based Soft Computing Techniques are used to tune near accurate correlation smell print of multi-sensor array. The software framework has been designed with adequate flexibility and openness, so that may train the system of scoring reliably predicts such smell print scores. Since there is a growing demand for the fresh flowers, there arises a need to develop a technique to identify the flower quality in non-destructive and quickest possible manner. This kind of technique would facilitate to identify the quality of flowers for short and long distance overseas markets without much loss of the post harvest quality.
Composting
Composting is an aerobic method of decomposing organic solid wastes. It can therefore be used to recycle organic material. The process involves decomposition of organic material into a humus-like material, known as compost, which is a good fertilizer for plants.
Composting requires the following three components:
- human management,
aerobic conditions,
development of internal biological heat.
Under ideal conditions, composting proceeds through three major phases:-
- An initial, mesophilic phase, in which the decomposition is carried out under moderate temperatures by mesophilic microorganisms.
- As the temperature rises, a second, thermophilic phase starts, in which the decomposition is carried out by various thermophilic bacteria under high temperatures.
- As the supply of high-energy compounds dwindles, the temperature starts to decrease, and the mesophiles once again predominate in the maturation phase.
Vermicompost
Vermicompost is the product or process of organic material degradation using various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and earthworms, to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste (excluding meat, dairy, fats, or oils), bedding materials, and vermicast. Vermicast, also known as worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by species of earthworm.
Vermicomposting can also be applied for treatment of sewage sludge.
Carbon Farming
Carbon farming is a name for a variety of agricultural methods aimed at sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil. Increasing the carbon content of soil can aid plant growth, increase soil organic matter (improving agricultural yield), improve soil water retention capacity,and reduce fertilizer use(and the accompanying emissions of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O).
Potential sequestration alternatives to carbon farming include scrubbing the air with machines; fertilizing the oceans to prompt algal blooms that after death carry carbon to the sea bottom; storing the carbon dioxide emitted by electricity generation; and crushing and spreading types of rock such as basalt that absorb atmospheric carbon.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of design principles centred around whole systems thinking simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, community, and organizational design and development.
Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.
The three core tenets of permaculture are:-
- Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
- Care for the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence
- Fair share: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness.The third ethic is referred to as Fair Share, which reflects that each of us should take no more than what we need before we reinvest the surplus.
Protected Cultivation
Protected cultivation or greenhouse cultivation is the most promising area where production of horticultural crops has improved qualitatively and quantitatively world over in the last few decades.
Presently, Spain, the Netherlands and Israel are the leaders in cultivation of crops in polyhouses and greenhouses.
Integrated Pest Management
To control pests many biological agents and their bi-products and array of chemicals (pesticides) are being used. The residues of these chemicals have detrimental effect on health of environment and consumers. To avoid this, a holistic approach called Integrated pest management (IPM) has been developed. IPM is a strategy that depends on a range of methods to manage pests within economically acceptable levels and causes least ecological damage. IPM mainly relies on beneficial organism (bio-control agents) to manage insect pests and, on regular crop monitoring to incorporate more preventive strategies to reduce the need for direct control practices and to ensure that pesticides are used only when needed in such a way that they complement the survival of beneficial organisms.
Leaf colour chart (LCC)
Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is one of the major input in rice production. Inadequate or excessive amount or improper timing of nitrogen application may lead to large nitrogen losses and poor nitrogen-use-efficiency in rice fields.
Leaf Colour Chart is a tool that help farmers in deciding the right time of N application to paddy crop.
Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed (FIRB) Systems
To reduce water use, conserve rain water and improve productivity, the system of raise bed planting of crops may be advantageous in up and low land situations. In bed planting systems, wheat or other crops are planted on raised beds. This practice has increased dramatically in the last decade.
Advantages-
- Management of irrigation water is improved.
- Bed planting facilitates irrigation before seeding and thus provides an opportunity for weed control prior to planting.
- Plant stands are better.
- Weeds can be controlled mechanically, between the beds, early in the crop cycle.
- Wheat seed rates are lower.
- After wheat is harvested and the beds are reshaped for planting the succeeding soybean crop.
- Herbicide dependence is reduced, and hand weeding and roguing is easier.
- Less lodging occurs.
- System of Wheat Intensification (SWI)
System of Wheat Intensification
SWI is a technology of wheat production which is based on manipulation of soil environment with minimum external input and very low seed rate. Therefore, the problem of low productivity of wheat in hilly regions could be addresses by SWI techniques .
Similar advantages as System of Rice Intensification mentioned above.
