NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural
Development
------------------------------------------
 
India Meteorological Department forecasts below normal rains
 
India may head towards drought if weathermen's forecast turns true
El Nino may play spoilsport

http://anypursuit.com/news/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=355

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=20349

ASHOK B SHARMA 
 
Some parts of India may experience drought this year as the country’s official
weather forecasting agency, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has lowered
its expectation and said that the nationwide average cumulative rainfall in the
four-month monsoon season which began in June would be below the normal range.
 
Quantitatively, the monsoon rainfall for the country is likely to be 93% of the
long period average with a model error of +/-4% and coefficient of variation of
10%. The LPA rainfall over the country for the period 1941-1990 is estimated at
89 cm. As the IMD has cautioned about a model error of +/-4%, the quantitative
rainfall may slip down to 89% of the LPA – a situation which may invite grave
consequences.

Earlier on April 17, this year, the IMD making an initial forecast for the
South-West Monsoon had said that countrywide average cumulative rainfall in the
season would be 96% with a model error of +/-5%.
 
The scaling down of the expectation to 93% of the LPA is significant when the
monsoon system has suffered a setback and its advance over Orissa, Maharashtra
and north Andhra Pradesh has been delayed by about two weeks and by about 10
days over Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, south Madhya Pradesh and south
Gujarat. As a result in the first month of the season till June 22, the average
cumulative rainfall over the country is less by 52% that over northwest India is
less by 41% that over central India is less by 75%, that over southern peninsula
is less by 23% and that over northeast India is less by 53%.
 
According to area categorisation, northwest India consists of Jammu and Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttaranchal and
Uttar Pradesh. Northeast India consists of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam,
Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Central India consists of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra,
Goa and Orissa. Southern peninsula consists of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
 
The rainfall over northwest India, which is the granary of country, is likely to
be 81% of its LPA (61.2 cm) with a model error of 8% - this means the rainfall
here may slip down to 73%. The coefficient of variation in this region is 19%.
However, IMD’s forecast of rainfall over central India raises some hope. It
has said that the rainfall over this region would be 99% of its LPA (99.4 cm)
with a model error of +/-8% and coefficient of variation of 14%.
 
The rainfall over northeast India is likely to be 92% of its LPA (142.9 cm) with
a model error of +/-8% and coefficient of variation of 8%.  The rainfall over
southern peninsula would be 93% of its LPA (72.5 cm) with a model error of 8%
and coefficient of variation of 15%.
 
The IMD has predicted that the countrywide rainfall in July, this year would be
93% of its LPA (29.3cm) subject to a model error of +/-9% and coefficient of
variation of 13%. In August it would be 101% of its LPA (26.2 cm) with a model
error of +/-9% and coefficient of variation of 14%.
 
The IMD while making its forecast has taken inputs from several global agencies.
The latest observations and forecasts from both dynamical and statistical models
suggest high probability (about 60%) for El Nino conditions to appear during the
monsoon season. El Nino phenomena is the warming of the Pacific waters above the
normal range which causes drought in many parts of the globe. The probability
for neutral conditions prevailing over Pacific is about 40% and that for La Nina
conditions (cooling of Pacific waters below normal) is negligible. La Nina
causes excess rains.
 
Finally, the analysis of the forecast data shows some parts of the country may
experience acute water stress condition or drought. The situation look critical
for northwest India, particularly Punjab and Haryana – the granary of the
country.
 
The secretary in the Union ministry for earth sciences, Dr Sailesh Nayak said
that IMD and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology have planned experiments
on cloud seeding and find out which type of clouds can cause rainfall in the
process. This project would come out with concrete results within two years. But
two years would be a long wait. It is time that government come out with
appropriate contingency plans to deal with the current situation.
-----------------------------------------------

Global climate change casts its dark shadow

Export of virtual water needed, river linking is last resort : IWMI

Efficient water use needed for ensuring food security

http://anypursuit.com/news/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=335

http://mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=19921
 
By: ASHOK B SHARMA
 
Water is essential not only for maintaining ecological security, but also has a
key role in ensuring food, feed and fibre security. Its domestic and industrial
uses also cannot be underestimated. The ongoing global climate change has
already begun casting its dark shadow on the availability of water resources.
The director general of International Water Management Institute (IWMI), COLIN J
CHARTRES in an exclusive interview to ASHOK B SHARMA called for efficient
management and use of this essential resource with a view avoid the impending
crisis of food and feed security. IWMI is one of the 15 affiliated institutes of
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Here are
the excerpts of the interview ---

Q : Water is likely to become scarce in the days to come and some believe that
the next major conflict in the world will be on water rights. What do you feel ?

A : I think there may be small regional controversies around water resources. We
can avoid major conflicts through careful planning, management and efficient
use. Productive use of water can be ensured if we aim at higher crop yield per
unit of water, efficient use of water in homes and industry, recycling of water,
preventing pollution of water bodies and ground water, artificial recharging of
ground water. Improving storage may range from solutions such as large dams,
medium size reservoirs to revitalizing the tank systems.

Q : What can be the possible impact of the ongoing global climate change on
water resources ?

A : Climate change is likely to have adverse impact on most of the developing
countries and emerging economies located in the tropical and sub-tropical
regions. Some of areas may witness short-duration monsoon season and higher
intensity storms. Other areas may have more climate variability and greater
drought frequency. Areas dependent on snow melt may have significant decreases
in water availability in the long term. All these issues will require adaptive
strategies with a view to maintain food security. IWMI has developed a Strategic
Plan 2009-13 to meet these challenges.

Q : What are the possible ways for maintaining food security ?

A : Globally we expect there will be 2.5 billion more mouths to feed by 2050. We
need to double grain production to meet the needs of food and animal feed. This
will need twice the amount of water we presently use in agriculture. Optimal use
of water should be promoted through policy. Institutional and regulatory
reforms. If possible incentives should be given to farmers to grown crops that
require less water like oilseeds and coarse cereals in water scarce regions.
Rice and sugarcane and paddy that require more water should be grown in areas
that have abundance of rain and water. The surplus of water intensive crops
grown in these regions can be transported to water deficient areas to meet their
requirement. This is called “the virtual export of water”. Governments of
rain deficient region should also resort to importing water intensive crops
instead growing them under strain.

Q : Do you support actual export of water by way linking river basins ?
 
A ; River linking should be the last resort. It is feasible from an engineering
but we need to look very closely at the socio-economic and environmental costs
of the region losing water and the economic benefits of the regions gaining
water
--------------------------------------------------------
 

Biopiracy by seed MNCs
 
Stop patenting climate resistant crops : Navdanya

A report on Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops released

http://anypursuit.com/news/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=327

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/climate-resistant-crops-should-not-be-paten\
ted/476013/0

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=19893
 
By: ASHOK B SHARMA
 
New Delhi: Biopiracy of traits of climate resilient crops by leading seed
multinationals can endanger the income and livelihood of farmers, more
particularly in the developing world said a report compiled by a civil society
organization, Navdanya.
 
In tune with the proposals made by the Group of 77, China and other developing
countries at the recently concluded 30th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for
Implementation (SBI 30) at the climate change talks in Bonn, Navdanya has
appealed that climate-friendly technologies should be excluded from patenting.

The report – Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops – has documented drought
resistant rice varieties grown by farmers from generations to generations in
different parts of India, including Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka
and flood resistant rice varieties grown in Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala
and Karnataka. Quoting the Guinness Book of Record, the report mentioned Mehite
Kenye La rice as the tallest grown paddy in the world which grows up to 2.55
metre or 8.5 feet.

The report documented salinity resistant rice varieties grown in the Sunderban
area of West Bengal alongwith the mangroves, Orissa, Kerala, northern Karnataka.
It also mentioned some of the diverse aromatic rice varieties and rice varieties
having therapeutic values and unique characteristics.

The Navdanya report expressed concern over the biopiracy being done by leading
seed multinationals by getting broad patent rights over climate-resistant traits
of conventional crops from different patent offices across the world. German
company, BASF has acquired 21 such patent rights. Another German company, Bayers
has five such patent rights. Ceres Inc of US which partners with Monsanto holds
four such patent rights. The reports also mentioned other seed companies holding
such patent rights like Dow, DuPont?, Evogene, Mendel Biotechnology, Monsanto,
Syngenta, Agrigenetic, Mycogen, Agrinomics, Pioneer Hi-Bred? International,
Plant Research International BV.

“Climate resistant traits are found in many crops conventionally grown across
the world, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical countries. These crops are
traditionally bred by farmers. The seed multinationals are robbing the farmers
of this traditional knowledge and patenting the traits. Some of them are trying
to develop second generation genetically modified (GM) crops based on these
traits,” alleged Vandana Shiva of Navdanya.
 
According to Shiva GM crops have failed to provide food and nutritional
security. The claim of pest control has turned out to be a hoax. The failure of
Bt cotton was an example she said and added that Bt cotton cultivation has
placed farmers in heavy losses and brought them to acute point of distress.

In 1994 Navdanya along with its sister organization, Research Foundation for
Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) filed a legal opposition against the
USDA and WR Grace patent on fungicidal properties of neem (no 436257 B1) in the
European Patent Office (EPO) at Munich, Germany. The patent on neem was revoked
in May 2000 and it was reconfirmed on March 8, 2005 when the EPO revoked in
entirety the controversial patent and adjudged that there was “no inventive
step” involved in the fungicide patent.

In 1998 Navdanya opposed the patent right given to the US company, RiceTec? over
basmati rice vide patent no 5663484. On August 14, 2001 the US Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) revoked the patent on basmati rice. On January 27,
2004, RFSTE alongwith Greenpeace and India’s leading farmers’ organization,
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj the patent right given to Monsanto over the Indian wheat
landrace, Nap Hal wide patent no EP 0445929 B1. The patent was revoked by EPO in
October, 2004.#
----------------------------------------------------
New technology to produce bio-butanol from agri wastes

Butanol fast emerging as nextgen biofuel
 
Will it address environmental concerns ?

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?passform=enterprisestory&storyid=20131
 
http://anypursuit.com/news/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=340
 
ASHOK B SHARMA 
 
In the search for next generation bio-fuels, butanol produced by fermentation of
agricultural products and wastes has emerged as a promising hope for the
alternative fuel in future.
 
Limited experiments suggest that butanol is an alternative fuel for spark
ignition (SI) engines. But cost competitive production technologies have to be
put in place and detailed material compatibility studies on the effect on human
health have to be done before it can be used as an alternative transportation
fuel on a commercial scale.
 
Butanol is a four carbon alcohol. Recently, butanol produced by fermentation,
know as bio-butanol  can be mixed in higher ratios with gasoline or diesel
without phase separation and for use in existing cars without the need for
retrofit as the air-fuel ratio and energy content are closer to that of gasoline
as the air-fuel  ratio and energy content are closer to that of gasoline.
 
Butanol could gradually replace gasoline as well as diesel due to its high
energy content, miscibility, better combustion characteristics, low volatility
and other positive qualities, experts say
 
According to Mritunjay Kumar Shukla of the Dehradun-based Indian Institute of
Petroleum kinematic viscosity of butanol is several times higher than that of
gasoline and about as viscous as high quality diesel fuel. Latent heat of
vapourisation of butanol is less than half of that of ethanol; an engine running
on butanol should be easier to start in cold weather than one running on
ethanol.
 
Its Stoichometric A/F ratio is 11.2 which allows butanol to function in a
standard engine where gasoline is used. The Stoichometric A/F ratio of gasoline
is 14.7 while that of ethanol is 9. Butanol’s energy content is about 105,000
Btu per US gallon while that of gasoline is about 114,000 Btu per US gallon. In
effect butanol has about 92% of the energy of gasoline. Shukla was recently in
Delhi on the occasion of the 6th International Bio-fuel Conference organized by
Winrock International India (WII).
 
Additionally as butanol has a very low vapour pressure point (RVP) of o.3 and a
high flash point (FP) of 37 degree Celsius it is very safe fuel to use in high
temperatures. Consequently butanol is a very versatile fuel and fuel extender in
both gasoline and diesel engines.
 
However, not much studies have been done regarding engine and vehicle testing of
butanol. According to Shukla it was demonstrated in June 2006 that n-butanol can
be used either 100% in unmodified 4-cycle ignition engine or blended up to 30%
with diesel in a compression engine or blended up to 20% with kerosene in a jet
turbine engine.

Laboratory experiments were conducted for evaluation of vehicular performance
and tailpipe emissions from butanol/gasoline and ethanol/gasoline at AFLAD,
Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun on a 4-stroke motorbike (Bajaj Caliber
115) on a chassis dynamometer. Commercially available gasoline fuel was used for
taking the baseline data of test vehicle – 99.9% pure ethanol and 99.9% pure
butanol were used for preparing blends of 5% and 10% of ethanol with gasoline
and butanol with gasoline. All the alcohol blends showed reduction in mass
emission of HC, CO and NOx. CO mass emission was found to be lowest with 10%
blended butanol. HC mass emission was lowest with 5% blended ethanol.

However with all the alcohol blends value of HC mass emission were found to be
comparable.  Slightly higher NOx mass emission was observed red in case of
butanol blends. All the butanol blends offered a smooth engine operation. Better
fuel efficiency was observed with butanol blends over ethanol blends.

However, environmental concerns still remain. Human inhalation exposure to
butanol-1 (20-50 ppm) is irritating to eyes, nose and throat though no systemic
effects occur at this exposure level. There is no report of carcinogenicity with
butanol-1 and it is classified under Group-D chemicals by EPA.

Release of n-butanol to soil may result in volatilisation from soil surface and
biodegradation is expected to be significant. As n-butanol may not bind strongly
to the soil and is, therefore, likely to reach the groundwater level.  Vapour
phase n-butanol in the atmosphere is expected to react with photo chemically
generated hydroxyl radicals with a half-life of 1.2 to 2.3 days.

Most common bio-butanol  production process is acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE)
fermentation developed by the Russian scientist and later Israeli president C
Weitzman at Manchester University by producing a bacteria which later came to be
known as C. acetobutylicum.

Apart from the ABE route there are EEI’s Dual Immobilised reactors with
continuous recovery process using two different types of clostridium strains and
UK’s Green Biological’s advance technologies utilizing thermophilic strains.
Besides there are emerging technologies for hydrolysis of cellulose using
mineral acids, enzymes followed by fermentation of c5/c6 sugars to bio-butanol,
Sangi hydroxyapatie (HAP) catalyst for dehydrating bio-ethanol to butanol,
gasification of various biological materials to make syngas to produce
bio-butanol and CO2 to fuel GTL technologies.
----------------------------------------------

UN Conference on World Financial Economic Crisis

Indian trade unions and NGOs call for new global economic order

Urged for waiving off IMF, World Bank debts

http://anypursuit.com/news/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=350

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=20309

By: ASHOK B SHARMA

On the eve of the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic
Crisis and its Impact on Development slated to be held in New York from June 24,
country’s trade unions and civil society organizations have demanded that
India take a firm stand by urging for replacing the ailing global financial
architecture by a new one embodying principles of economic justice and equitable
Development.

They have also said that the Indian government should send a responsible
minister to participate in this crucial global conference and not just send some
officials.

In a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Deputy General
Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, H Mahadevan, J John and G
Manicandan of Centre for Education and Communication, Sumit Chopra of All India
Agricultural Workers’ Union and Ashok Chowdhury of National Forum for Forest
People and Forest Workers have said : “the global financial and economic
crisis is structural in nature and that the current free trade paradigm is a
major part of the problem. The financial crisis has shown that free markets and
free trade cannot correct themselves. Therefore, we urge you to Work towards an
end to liberalized trade in risky financial products and the deregulation of
financial service providers, which has been made possible under the WTO General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).”

They have also called for rejecting the position that conclusion of the Doha
Round of negotiations would be a solution to the crisis. On the contrary,
continuing liberalization of the financial sector of national economies through
the GATS and the free trade agreements (FTAs) would only serve to worsen the
crisis. Once the financial services were liberalized, the foreign banks would
refuse to provide credit to small farmers and local industries and would finance
mega and resource extraction projects which would be detrimental to environment,
they said.

The trade union leaders and civil society organizations called for strengthening
the role of the United Nations in overall global economic governance and crisis
resolution and to coordinate global institutions like the WTO, World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF). They alleged that the earlier draft
circulated for the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and
its Impact on Development had called for a setting up of new Global Economic
Council and this provision alongwith other proposals suggested by noted
economist Joseph Stiglitz were deleted in the subsequent draft at the instance
of the rich nations represented by G-7.

They alleged that the present draft was modeled on the lines of the G-20
approach which cannot solve the problem as “G-20 was acting as a shield to
protect the interests of G-7” The World Bank and IMF conditionality have
stifled growth in poor countries the debts should be waived off. The new global
economic order should aim at people’s participation in shaping economic
policy, food and energy sovereignty, universal access to essential services and
public utilities, protection and promotion of human rights including that of
indigenous people, women and children. The United Nations should be domocratised
with equal voting rights for member countries.#