Curbing soot could blunt global warming: Study

Curbing soot could blunt global warming: Study

Alternative energy-efficient and smoke-free cookers can reduce soot’s role in global warming; can delay unprecedented climate change, which is due primarily to CO2 emissions

Paris: Sharply reducing the amount of black carbon -- commonly known as soot -- in the atmosphere could help slow global warming and buy precious time in the long-term fight against climate change, according to a study released in the British journal, Nature.Smoke inhalation cause of death Curbing soot emissions could be a life saver. Each year, more than 400,000 deaths among women and children in India alone, and 1.6 million worldwide, are attributed to smoke inhalation during indoor cooking using biofuels such as wood or dung, one of the primary sources of black carbon, according to the World Health Organization.Reviewing dozens of recent scientific studies, two researchers in the United States calculated that black carbon is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels. In addition, the eight million metric tonnes of soot released into the atmosphere every year have created a number of “hot spots” around the world, contributing significantly to rising temperatures.35% black carbon output from China, India The plains of south Asia along the Ganges River and continental east Asia are both such hotspots, in part because up to 35% of global black carbon output comes from China and India. Emissions in China alone doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to the study, published in 2006. Fine black soot settling on snow and ice -- and thus trapping more of the Sun’s radiative force -- have also accelerated the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas and ice cover in the Arctic, two regions that have been hit especially hard by climate change in recent decades.“A major focus on decreasing black carbon emissions offers an opportunity to mitigate effects of global warming trends in the short term,” the authors conclude. While the presence of black carbon, sometimes in the form of great plumes several kilometres high called atmospheric brown clouds, has been known to scientists for some time, their impact on warming has been hard to assess. Direct measurement requires multiple aircraft flying over the same domain at different altitudes for an extensive period at the same time. Cut back soot output Significantly cutting back on black carbon emissions is not only possible, but would yield rapid benefits, say the authors, Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute in San Diego, California, and Greg Carmichael of the University of Iowa.40% of soot comes from the same sources as greenhouses gases, notably the burning of coal and oil, and will only be reduced as quickly or slowly as economies become less carbon intensive. Remaining 60% of black carbon in the atmosphere comes from the more easily altered practices of burning biofuels and forests, the authors say. Also, cutting back soot output would have an almost immediate effect. Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for 100 years after it is released, black carbon has an atmospheric life cycle of approximately one week. “Providing alternative energy-efficient and smoke-free cookers, and introducing transferring technology for reducing soot emissions from coal combustion in small industries could have major impacts” on reducing soot’s role in global warming, they conclude. Such measures would result in a 70-80% reduction in heating caused by black carbon in south Asia, and a 20-40% cut in China, according to the study. The authors caution, however, that soot reduction can only help delay unprecedented climate change, which is due primarily to CO2 emissions.

Link to the article: http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/24102355/Curbing-soot-could-blunt-globa.html

Profitable alternative for extensive farming

Bangalore, Feb 10 Sericulture proved to be a profitable farm practice, when compared to other cash crops including fruits. According to a paper presented by the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSSLUP) and the Directorate of Sericulture of Maharashtra, sericulture could yield higher income even when it was cultivated in fields suitable for other cash crops like paddy, wheat, and cotton.

In the study area of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, which is well known for production of fruit crops like orange and guava, acreage and productivity is declining gradually due to imbalance in climatic condition and recurrence of pests and diseases.

In horticulture, a farmer has to wait for more than six years for fruits to bear and ten years for optimum income. On the other hand, the productivity of cash crop like cotton has not been steady due to erratic and unpredictable rainfall, disease outbreak, inadequate marketing facilities, and government policies.

To understand yielding capacity of different crops, field trials were conducted in Kuchi taluk in Vidarbha region, which is predominantly a paddy area. Paddy-sunflower, soybean-wheat, soybean-gram, and mulberry were the components of the farming system in Kuchi area.

It was noted that higher productivity potential under paired row planting of mulberry could be achieved in Vidarbha, although it is not a traditional belt for sericulture. The mulberry crop efficiently utilised sub-soil moisture of deep soils by shrink-swell in the dry period. The income from mulberry started after three months of plantation with optimum production from the second year onwards. In marginal lands with protective irrigation, farmers fetched higher returns from sericulture than traditional crops, and also generated employment for more than 170 mandays.

The income from sericulture was found to be highest at Rs 82,315 per hectare per year against the cost of cultivation of Rs 26, 515. The sericulture fetched 300% profit on investment. But paddy-sunflower fetched Rs 33, 242 against an investment of Rs 12, 133 at a profit rate of 173%, followed by soybean-wheat at Rs 23, 744 for an investment of Rs 8,760 at a profit rate of 171%. Even soyabean-gram fetched only Rs 18,995 against an investment of Rs 7,375.

Link to the article: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Sericulture-emerges-as-lucrative-farm-practice/271417/

Can rice farmers make do with less water than they've always thought their crop has needed?

Dr. Sudhirendar Sharma reports on a promising innovation.

November 2003 - In his life as a progressive farmer this has been the biggest surprise. As Harchand Singh explained the experience of growing paddy without the usual flooding of the fields, curious farmers from adjoining villages on the outskirts of Ludhiana watched him with rapt attention. Holding the rice ears in his hands he exclaimed, `It has been better than the flooded rice in both quality and quantity.' As other bewildered farmers watched, Singh claimed that his net saving on water had been around 60-70 per cent.

At a time when scientists at the resource-crunched International Rice Research Institute in Manila are struggling to develop new rice varieties that can grow in less water, the success in farmers' fields in Punjab may indeed have come as a welcome respite. With some 60 per cent of the world population being fed on rice, the impact of rice cultivation on freshwater supplies - especially in Asia - is a serious concern. Rice fields alone consume some 85 percent of all freshwater supply.

`Erroneously, agricultural science has believed all this time that the capacity of the paddy plant to tolerate flooded conditions has been the necessary condition for its survival,' commented Dr Daler Singh, who has pioneered the development of less-water paddy at the JDM Foundation in Ladhowal, Ludhiana.

During the last four years, Dr Singh and his colleagues have demonstrated at farmers' fields in several locations in Punjab that indeed this is not the case. Paddy can survive and thrive on much less water than previously thought. The incredible results with less-water paddies have attracted Noble Laureate Norman Borlaug and the World Food Prize Laureate and noted rice scientist Dr Gurdev Khush to farmers' fields in the past four years. The innovation has caught the attention of the Johl Committee on Agricultural Policy & Restructuring that has made recommendations to the Punjab Government to alter cropping patterns in favour of conserving dwindling freshwater supplies in the state.

The innovation is simple. Rice seedlings are transplanted on to ridges spaced 24 inches apart with furrows that are filled with water. While the crop is irrigated daily for the first week after transplantation, subsequent irrigation is at weekly intervals with special attention during tillering and grain setting stages. Since less water is used than the flooded rice fields, about 30 per cent less fertiliser is applied in the ridge-furrow system of paddy cultivation.

Paddy alone occupies 60 per cent of the cropped area during summer, and a significant portion of the annual consumption of 43.7 lakh ha metres of water is utilised for irrigating paddy in Punjab. Any reduction in water consumption at the farm will have a telling impact on electricity consumption in the state too. Statistics indicate that 35 per cent of the total electricity consumed in the state is being used to energise 7.5 lakh tubewells - mostly for irrigating paddy.

While researchers in Manila may have impending water crises in the backs of their minds as they work to identify rice genotypes that have efficient water usage systems, field trials in Punjab have put the existing rice varieties to accomplish the same task. `The results indicate that all rice varieties are inherently capable of growing under less moisture conditions,' said R P S Aulakh, a member of the research team and Chairman of the Agriculture Technocrats Action Committee.

However, the innovation has yet to be adopted for wider dissemination by the agriculture department of the state, despite the government's focus on converting over a million-hectares under rice-wheat cropping rotation to other water-saving crops. Though the agriculture bureaucracy of the state has acknowledged the multi-faceted value of less-water paddy cultivation, it doesn't want the entire credit of developing the system to go to the JDM Research Foundation.

Further, Punjab's crop diversification plan hinges on the subsidy support of Rs. 1,280 crores that it is requesting the Central government to shell out. By giving an incentive of Rs. 12,500 per hectare, the government aims to inspire farmers to switch from the present paddy-wheat rotation to water-saving crops like durum wheat, pulses and oilseeds. However, the state government not only stands to firm up its electoral base amongst farmers but gain patronage of the private companies in the process too.

In such a situation the future of this innovation, that neither attracts any large capital transfer to the state on one hand nor benefits the private companies by way of better market for their seeds on the other, remains obscure. Many fear that the innovation may not get the desired patronage of the government on account of it being under agreement with the private companies for input delivery and buyback of the harvest under the crop diversification plan.

At a time when global research is focussed on reducing freshwater consumption on the farm from food security concerns, the traditional water-guzzler paddy is the key crop being targeted. Asia, where rice is a staple for more than half the world's people, faces a crisis in fresh water as populations swell, forests shrink and water tables recede. It is indeed incredible that the answer to cutting freshwater consumption on the farm comes from Punjab, the state that is at the forefront of all listed ecological sins.

The International Rice Research Institute not in a position to provide answers by way of a variety of aerobic rice for widespread adoption in the near future. In this situation, it is for the government to capitalise on the situation to ensure that the maximum number of farmers benefit from the innovation that reduces water needs. If this technique for saving huge quantities of water in the paddy fields were adopted by farmers in the peninsular India, the Cauvery dispute will get resolved once for all.

Link to the article: http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/nov/agr-paddy.htm