Dimensions of Agriculture

Food is one of the components of our life, which we often take for granted sometimes. If one has faced the difficulty of getting food even for one day, He can understand the vitality of this component. For keeping us energetic and proper growth and development, it is very essential that we don't only focus on food, but more on the nutritional aspect of the food. It is not about just filling the stomach with some grains or cereals, the diet which we are taking must contribute to the nutritional requirement of our body otherwise our hunger will convert into hidden hunger and we might show the symptoms of malnutrition and undernutrition which can affect our ability to fight with infections and common disease. But there are some people in this world, for whom getting even a one-day meal in a day is a luxury. They constitute people from all the age groups, but the most seriously affected are the kids, who lost their childhood, dreams, and sometimes even their life in struggling for gett...

Phosphorus is one of the most important elements on earth both for plants as well as for animals. It is one of the main elements of DNA, RNA, Protein, amino acid, and cell membrane in the form of phospholipids and so it forms the very basis of life in all living organisms. For plants, it is the second most vital element in their growth and development after nitrogen and is one of the critical elements for plant growth among NPK. Due to its vital need in agriculture, Phosphorus fertilizers like DAP, NPK, SSP are also among the most expensive and important inputs in a cropping season. The simple cycle of the phosphorous can be easily explained from the following process Humans take phosphorus from plants, plants take phosphorus from soil, the soil has phosphorus from the weathering of the rocks/Parent material and by decomposition of organic matter and input of fertilizers. From the above process, it can easily be understood that phosphorus is a finite nonrenewable resource that might ge...

  Just like Humans plants also suffer from many stress factors which limit the yield potential of plants. One of the major areas in the field of genetics and plant breeding is to improve crop varieties for tackling the problem of abiotic stress like drought, salinity, Heat stress, and many more. Different types of research are going on to solve this problem by using different approaches like Transcriptomics, finding osmosensor genes, Genome editing, mutation breeding, and identifying wild varieties from which we can introduce genes in current cultivars by backcrossing or any other method. One of the main stress which is faced by the plants is salinity, which simply means more concentration of salt in the soil. But before moving forward let's talk about some major questions you might have in your mind  1. Why Plant can not survive in stress conditions -   Well this can be understood from the fact that when Plant absorbs minerals and nutrients from soil via water, salt...

              The gene revolution which came after the green revolution in 1980 is one of the most vital driving forces in the Indian agriculture sector through which a new era of transgenic and molecular plant breeding has started and today even after 40 years there are still many unopened doors in the field of biotechnology both in India and all over the world where It can contribute a lot to solve emerging problems in agriculture. The use of biotechnology in agriculture is now a necessity and not an option if we need to move towards a modern and sustainable form of agriculture as well as its allied enterprise. From crop production to crop protection and food processing and even in improving the nutritional value addition (Biofortification) we have seen the major role play by biotechnology. Let us discuss all these in brief to understand the role played by biotechnology Crop production – Due to the rapid increase in population both nationally a...

    Food Literacy and Food as a medium of social change       My idea of food literacy – Food literacy is a very dynamic and integral part of our life that affects all the phases of our life ranging from maternal nutrition when we are not even born to the healthy food which we consume during our lifecycle. Food literacy is the ability of a person to understand the nutritional requirement of the food and different time along with its impact on ecology and the environment. Food literacy helps us to make wise decisions with respect to our eating habits and will diversify the food basket that can protect us from any nutritional deficiency and will make our body more satisfied in terms of vitamins and minerals and also give the capacity to everyone to grow its own food and meet his/her requirement. For me FOOD LITERACY means - FOOD- F unctioning O f O ur D iet LITERACY- L ifetime I nvestment T o E nergy and R ightfully A cquisition of C apacity of Y outh. ...

                              WETLAND AND BIODIVERSITY Wetlands are a great resource of cultural, scientific, recreational, and economic value to human life and they are very closely linked to the biodiversity of the flora and fauna in the ecosystem . In simple words, I can define wetland – The transitional land between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems where the water table is usually at or near the surface. However, any piece of land covered with shallow water may also be termed as a wetland . You may think for a while that why are we talking about these wetlands, well this can be justified by the fact that 1.   They are the most productive ecosystem of the world by contributing 2/3 rd of the total fish harvest of the world. 2.   They help in carbon sequestration, climate stabilization, groundwater recharge and their role in providing livelihood to millions of people can not be neglected. 3.   T...