 This section contains news item collected from various web sources in the preceding week. This presents an opportunity to understand the technology trends and opportunities in a particular field.
General
Samsung launches a new range of washing machines Ahead of the festive season, Korean consumer durable maker Samsung today introduced a new range of semi-automatic washing machines in India. The new machines with silver nanotechnology has been developed keeping in mind the requirements of the Indian consumers priced between Rs 6,590 to Rs 9,990. "At Samsung, our consistent effort in terms of research and development has been, to introduce technology innovation, not only in the premium end but also in the mass, volume-driven categories," Samsung India Director Sales and Marketing Pradeep Tognatta said in a statement. He said silver nanotechnology introduction in the semi-automatic washing machine category is an example of the same. With over 10 million dollar invested in R&D, Silver Nano is the first technology that combines the disinfectant and antibiotic properties of electrolytic silver nano-particles (Ag+) in washing machines to remove harmful bacteria, the statement added. http://www.hindu.com BCC Research Report Says Global Market for Microscopes, Accessories and Supplies to Reach $3.6 Billion by 2012 The fastest growing segments of the market are scanning probe microscopes, with a CAGR of 19.4% between 2007 and 2012, and charged particle microscopes with a CAGR from 2007 to 2012 of 9.0%. Optical microscopes are projected to have the lowest growth rate of any major market segment (5.6% CAGR). As a result, charged particle microscopes, which have the largest market share of any product segment, are projected to increase their market share further, from 52% in 2006 to 52.1% in 2012. Optical microscopes are projected to lose market share, from 26.2% in 2006 to 21.9% in 2012. In 2006, semiconductor manufacturing was the dominant end-user market for microscopes, with 31% of the total market, followed by life sciences (27%) and materials (24%), and nanotechnology (10%). Nanotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing are the fastest-growing end-user markets with CAGRs of 19.4% and 10.2% respectively. As a result, by 2012, the semiconductor industry is expected to account for 34% of the overall microscope market and nanotechnology 17%. Other end-user segments should lose market share over the next 5 years. http://www.nanotech-now.com Kalam to visit US The Indian American community, especially students and academicians, are eagerly awaiting the visit of former president A P J Abdul Kalam, who will be touring the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas and Arkansas starting on Monday. In Maryland, Kalam will be the chief guest at the JSS Spiritual Mission's anniversary celebrations at Gaithersburg. The celebrations will be held in the presence of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamji, Sri Suttur Math, Mysore, and other spiritual leaders. Among those expected to participate include India's Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen and leading American dignitaries including the Governor of Maryland, Martin O' Malley, Senators Barbara Mikluski and Benjamin L Cardin, and members of the House of Representatives Steny Hoyer, Elijah Cummings, Chris Van Hollen and Albert Russell Wynn. Prior to attending the JSS Mission event, Kalam will be at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Kalam will also give a lecture at the Carnegie Mellon Campus in Pittsburgh beside visiting the Robotics laboratory and meeting members of the Indian Community. During his visit in Texas, Kalam will attend a presentation of Rice University's Nanotechnology Laboratory. Kalam will also give a lecture on "Nanotechnology and Society" at the University of Arkansas. http://www.hindu.com Heng Li Machinery Co., Ltd Introduces Garlic Processing Machines Technology As the first garlic processing machine manufacturer, Heng Li was established in 1970 and has occupied over ninety percent of market coverage in Taiwan. It not only provides integrated garlic processing line, but also offers Food Skewer Machine to satisfy various market demands, Heng Li has marketed worldwide for sixteen years with food processing industries from South Asia, Europe and United States. Making a great efforts to machine development, Heng Li has received various patent rights on food process machines such as garlic peeler, garlic separating, garlic sorting, vegetable washing, eel skewer and food skewer machines with SGS and CE standards. Heng Li continues to obtain more international certifications to meet market demands. It offers from basic line includes separating, sorting and peeling implements, a mashed garlic making such as chapping, filling, and antisepticizing treatment equipments, to finished garlic powder production. All components and machine models are fully supplied depends on customers' need. With stainless steel built-in and durable structure design, Garlic Separating Machine adapts to various size of garlic bulb, as well as protects garlic clove from split procedure by means of self-invented adjustable scrolling device with international food hygiene standard, in addition, Garlic Sorting Machine also assist to sort out garlic pieces, stem and film by equipped fan and sieve before peeling. Heng Li Garlic peeler machine was high recommended product in France, German, United Kingdom and Turkey. According to traditional garlic peeling machine, garlic cloves were easily damaged by water rubbing procedure, it also cause high water consumption, water pollution and bad smell. To avoid these problems, Heng Li Garlic peeler machine could keep garlic intact and fresh through dry and peeling process with air compressor device. Its automatic temperature controller and feeder apparatus enable the complete separation of the garlic meats from the outer skins. This machine effectively supports high volume manufacturing, save electricity expense, lower rate of break down and produces at the rate of 60~170 KG/HR. Heng Li provides four models to meet customer requirements in terms of production capacity and delivery target, its advanced vacuum cleaner equipment collect the garlic cutis from peeling and reduce pollution in factory. http://www.newswiretoday.com
Design & Innovation
Seoul Named 'World Design Capital' Seoul was designated as the "World Design Capital (WDC) 2010" by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design on the last day of its congress in San Francisco, Saturday, according to the city government Sunday. The capital designation was proposed by the council President Peter Zec to "promote and encourage the use of design to further the social, economic and cultural development of the world's cities." Torino of Italy was named the WDC pilot city, but Seoul was selected as the first official one. Seoul will play the role of the world's capital of design for one year. A city official said that Seoul would be able to host various international meetings and events by taking advantage of the WDC position and that products made in Seoul would increase in value. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in his acceptance speech, "Design will be a driving force in developing Seoul's economy. Seoul has surprised the world with the "Miracle of the Han River" and great information technology, but will now attract the world's attention with design." He said Seoul would prove that design has the power to change the world. City officials expect the city brand of Seoul to be enhanced, and the competitiveness of Korea's design industry to strengthen. The city plans to sign a memorandum of agreement with the council about Seoul's rights and duties as the WDC by March next year, as well as promote related projects by organizing a WDC committee. Manufacturers must think global 30 Oct, 2007, 0446 hrs IST, MV Ramsurya, TNN* MUMBAI: Even as the debate on core competency and diversification continues to dog Indian companies, a well known Japanese management expert was in the country recently to try and make Indian manufacturing companies look beyond mere production and to include aspects like research and logistics, to increase their share of the global pie. Professor Shoji Shiba, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the celebrated 'breakthrough management' concept, was in Mumbai, to make middle and senior executives unlearn the "need to produce and produce more." Core competency for corporations has been a key part of management restructuring in most companies ever since gurus CK Prahlad and Gary Hamel published their celebrated theory in the Harvard Business Review in the nineties. But then there has also been too much of a focus on production, fears the professor. "For years Indian manufacturing companies have been laying too much emphasis on production. It's time they made that leap to the big mindset," he said. "You need to include R&D (research and development), product design, supply chain, if you want to go global," he said. The Japanese professor who is also one of the world's leading experts in Total Quality Management, recently spent two weeks at the Godrej's Center for Excellence in Mumbai, in a joint effort with the Confederation of Indian Industry. "If Indian manufacturing companies don't get their act together and work toward a global presence, they could be wiped out," he said. Indian manufacturing is already reeling under the impact of old labour laws and a weak infrastructure, he added. Outlining his views through a presentation titled 'Small m vs Big M', with the 'm' representing mindset, Prof Shiba said R&D based on customer feedback is vital before focusing on production. The feedback and research would feed product design which could then be used in producing custom-made goods, he said. Putting the supply chain - including logistics for raw materials and finished goods - was equally important and so were developing after-sales-service and warranty to spur global growth, he added. Industry insiders, including those who have attended Prof Shiba's previous sessions say that the re-orientation from production-only to a global mindset, shows how dynamic his concepts could be. In fact the former MIT professor wasn't slow to attack TQM and Total Productivity Maintenance (TPM). "All that was okay till three years back...now it isn't enough. The Big M is essential to survive under global competition," he added. Rightfully, his new concept now includes manufacturing, societal and environmental changes as well. "You also need to develop manufacturing and create role models," he said while talking about the erosion of the sector's share of the Indian economy. Manufacturing currently accounts for 27% of the GDP, way behind the 55% contributed by the service sector. But that could be changing, say latest reports. Manufacturing firms reported healthy expansion of output in September, with the rate of growth the fastest since November 2006 and led by higher volumes of new orders and increased marketing. The ABN AMRO India Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 57.9 in August to 59.1 in September. The index is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector and is based on factors like new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and employment. A index reading of more than 50 means that the sector has expanded. Apart from a more-than-necessary focus on production, weak R&D is another inhibiting factor, said Prof Shiba. *_"Research in India is mostly product design...that needs to be ramped up so that Indian centres create a series of innovations_*," he added.
Agriculture
Centre open to EU setting up agri lab on quality control The Centre is willing to co-operate with the European Union to set up a lab of international standards for quality control in India in the agri sector, food processing industry minister Subodh Kant Sahai said. Urging the EU to come up with a guideline that would enable putting quality infrastructure in place, he said a different yardstick was applied for retail giants like Metro, whereas in the Indian context, the rules were different. To have uniform standards and quality procedures for the entire food processing sector, it was necessary for the EU to set up a joint lab in this country by working closely with industry bodies. The minister said India's focus was already on organic foods, given the global interest in this area. "The entire North-East has declared itself an organic state," he pointed out. Taking on those who are opposed to the entry of big retail businesses and FDI into the country, Mr Sahai said: “The arrival of foreign retail into the country will not create a problem for small shopkeepers here. The government will insist that these big retailers include even the small shops in their chain". Noting that agriculture is a state subject, he sought states' participation in introducing amendments to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act. Only this, according to him, would trigger third party investment opportunities into agricultural operations. "Farmers are not earning much and they are not able to reinvest money into agriculture. Third-party investment opportunity has to be created by state governments. It can happen only if the APMC Act is amended," the minister said, allaying fears of the farm community to some extent. Mr Sahai also underscored the importance of huge investments in this sector. The government, he said, would allocate Rs 10 crore for setting up cold chains and Rs 15 crore for abettors. The Centre has also decided to pump in Rs 50 crore for a mega food park, which would facilitate both forward and backward integration. To safeguard farmers' interests, their labour contribution and land must be taken into consideration while drafting detailed pre-feasibility reports, he added. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com Technology centre for farmers In a move aimed at expanding its service portfolio for farmers, the Kerala Agro Industries Corporation is setting up an agriculture technology centre and consultancy cell at its headquarters at Tiruvanandhapuram. The technology centre-cum-showroom is primarily aimed at familiarising farmers with modern technology, agricultural practices and equipment that will help them boost yield and minimise dependence on labour. The centre would be equipped with technology tools to help farmers seeking technical support. Apart from static display of farm equipment and machinery, the facility would have computers and projectors to help farmers understand how they are operated in field conditions. The CDs for most of the machinery had been prepared. These will be played on the computer to help farmers grasp their operation and select the equipment best suited for their purpose. The Internet facility at the centre will also be utilised to expose farmers to modern agricultural techniques and equipment used in other parts of India and abroad. Engineers will be at hand to clear doubts raised by clients. Live demonstration of machines have been arrange on demand. The consultancy cell will have experts to provide advice on utilisation of farmland, setting up green houses, irrigation facilities and improved varieties of seed and fertilizer. The new venture was expected to promote mechanisation and adoption of new technology for improved agricultural output. The Corporation currently manufactures and markets a range of farm and garden equipment including sprayers, lawn mowers, tillers, trowels and earth moving equipment. It has also diversified into the production of value-added products like tender coconut chips. http://www.hindu.com India is global Banana destination India with rich bio-diversity of banana and plantain is the largest producer and consumer with estimated production of 16 million tonnes of banana annually. India's domestic production alone exceeds the entire world trade, with 19 per cent share of the total production of banana in the world. The contribution of banana to GDP of agriculture in India is 2.8 per cent. It also provides livelihood security to millions of people in primary producing areas, trade and processing. The global production of banana is of the order of 71 million tonnes, cultivated in about 4.5 million hectare, mostly by small and marginal farmers; it has an added dimension because it provides a source of livelihood and income to the farmers in the developing countries, of which India holds a major share. Banana is also an important food item ranking fourth in consumption after rice, wheat and milk. The emerging trend world-wide and also in our country is indicative of a paradigm shift in dietary needs of the people with rise in income, which demands more horticultural produce and thus the need for more emphasis on banana. It is also one of the main fruit in international trade. In terms of volume it stands first among exported fruits, and second after citrus fruits in terms of value. There is consistent growth in banana export from India. In terms of volume 80,99,617 kg. plantains were exported in 2001-02, which increased to 86,55,519 kg. in next year and 10,876,781 kg. in 2003-04. Major exports in 2003-04 were to Middle East countries topped by UAE, besides Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Other major importers of this fruit from India are Nepal, USA, Iran, Maldives, UK., Canada and Bangladesh. The growing potential for plantain and banana based products in the domestic and world markets has presented the banana a golden opportunity. And to encash upon this opportunity, the banana growing states have to concentrate upon the procurement, infrastructure setting, production and marketing of the fruit. The government has decided to harness the potential of Indian Banana industry and to place Indian Banana in the global trade scenario. Focus Areas There is increasing concern for supplying virus free tissue planting material for quality production of banana in view of a large number of tissue culture units that have come up. The use of hi-tech interventions like micro-irrigation, mulching, high density planting has been responsible for achieving high productivity levels in different parts of India, which would be promoted in potential banana growing belts. The available technology and infrastructure would be pooled for promoting precision farming for achieving increased productivity per unit with judicious utilisation of available resources like land, water, light, fertilizer and time. National Horticulture Mission has been launched recently to promote the development of horticulture including banana. The Mission envisages backward and forward linkages. For value addition, government is providing incentives to entrepreneurs for setting up of horticulture processing industries and food parks in potential areas to encourage linkages between the markets for the horticulture produce and processing industry through various government schemes. Profitable Use of by-products - Vaishali Example The trunk of banana trees has also been put to fruitful use by women in Vaishali district of Bihar. It is the story of an initiative by a group of women who came up with the idea of making household items from the fiber extracted from banana trunks and approached the director of the Hariharpur based Banana Research Institute. Convinced by the idea, the Institute not only procured the machinery for extraction of banana fiber but also trained 500 women to extract the fiber. Both farmers and farm women are happy. The farmer get Rs. 5 per piece of trunk which was earlier dumped, by selling it to women engaged in extraction of fiber. This fiber is then sold at a procurement centre of the Institute at a price varying from Rs. 60-100 per kg. depending upon the quality. From this yarn, women make various handicraft items like wall hangings, flower baskets, bags, chappals and earn a good living. http://www.commodityonline.com Processed food exports jump 194% India’s total exports of processed food jumped 194 per cent in the last four years to ¤13.8 billion in 2006-07 from 4.7 billion in 2002-03, a KPMG-FICCI report said. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) aims to increase India's share in the global processed food trade to 3 per cent in the next eight years from 1.6 per cent at present. Being a strong agricultural base, India is in a ideal position to take advantage of the growing food trade and become a sourcing hub for food products. The domestic food processing industry is estimated to grow at 9-12 per cent in the near future. Fruit & vegetable processing, which is currently around 2 per cent of the total production, is likely to increase to 10 per cent by 2010, and further to 25 per cent by 2025. Value-addition in food products is expected to increase from the current 8 per cent to 35 per cent by the end of 2025. Higher sales growth, increased earnings of the companies, rising exports of agri-processed foods and government policy 31 initiatives have set the stage for a buoyant performance by the food processing industry. In spite of being the world's second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, the country’s performance on the exports front, especially on processed food, remains lacklustre because of age-old technology and lack of adequate infrastructure. According to industry estimates, the processed food market accounts for 32 per cent of the total food market valued at 67.9 billion. With private equity players joining in the action, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the food sector is poised to breach the 2.1 billion market. In the last year alone, FDI approvals in food processing have doubled, according to the report. According to a Venture Intelligence Report, while the food and beverage sector witnessed PE investments of 4.2 million in two deals last year, this year has already seen 11 deals worth 106.4 million. There appears to be high scope for consolidation in a fragmented market, with most businesses promising good and sustainable returns. In fact, companies are recording higher growth rate from this sector compared to the home and personal care segment. Large investors and corporations, both Indian and international, are capitalising on the Indian agribusiness as an emerging market with twin opportunities - to cater to the growing Indian middle-class and to export premium processed food. Food for Thought
Australia likely to invest in India's processed food sector Australia is finding suitors in India to forge alliances in the food processing sector. It has identified opportunities in Indian food processing sector and its firms are likely to invest, collaborate and make partnership with Indian companies, says a joint study between the two countries on food processing sector. The study also highlights benefits from greater Australian participation in this sector. The study 'Opportunities in the Indian Food Processing Sector' was jointly launched today here by Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay and Australia's High Commissioner in India John McCarthy. The current trade with Australia is estimated at 10,098 million Australian dollar. Exports from India account for 1,280 million Australian dollar and mainly comprise of pearls and jems and jewllery, floor coverings and medicines. "With strong growth in food retail, only two per cent of fresh products being processed at present and a burgeoning middle class demanding higher quality, safer and more readily available food products, the Indian government has identified the development of the food processing sector as an area of high priority," a release from the high commission said. It also said significant opportunities exist for Australian participation in the Indian food processing sector, as Australia has widely recognised expertise in areas such as agri-technology, food production and processing, supply chain and cold chain logistics and retail services. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com Dwindling food - Shortcomings of the Green Revolution The import of 50 lakh tonnes of wheat for the second consecutive year (2007-08) and 55 lakh tonnes during 2006-07 imply that our food security is at risk. The Prime Minister has recently expressed concern over the declining trend in crop productivity, and has focussed on agricultural development. He has announced additional financial assistance of Rs 25,000 crore to encourage states to draw up comprehensive agriculture plans to achieve the targeted farm growth. A National Food Security Mission is being launched to raise production over the next five years. It aims at raising rice production by 10 million tonnes from the existing 86 million tonnes across 133 districts, wheat production by eight million tonnes from 69 million tonnes in 138 districts and pulses by two million tonnes from the existing 13.8 million tonnes in 168 districts. It is proposed to expand the area, improve crop productivity, restore soil fertility, create employment opportunities and raise farm economy to instil confidence in farmers. Wheat production has been stagnating, and its yield declining, which is now 26.17 quintals/ha in 2006-07, down from 27.78 quintals/ha in 1999-2000. Its production has declined to 74 million tonnes in 2006-07 from 76 million tonnes in 1999-2000. The area under wheat is shrinking, while seed and fertiliser costs are rising. It has declined to 26 million hectares in 2006-07 from 28 million hectares in 1998-99. Many farmers in the north particularly in Punjab and Haryana are now shifting to profitable cash crops. Disturbing performance The performance on the food front has thus been disturbing as there has been a sharp decline in crop productivity. The era of the Green Revolution in wheat and rice has reached a dead end, as there has been no breakthrough in seeds or yield since then. On the other hand, the problems arising out of the Green Revolution are now emerging. There has been a qualitative and quantitative degradation of land, water and bio-resources; fertile lands have become uncultivable due to waterlogging and salinisation; and post-harvest losses have been substantial. The dwindling natural resources, depleting underground water resources and growing indebtedness are the new challenges in the farm sector. The Green Revolution owes its success primarily to increasing wheat and rice production through the introduction of the high-yielding miracle Mexican wheat seed, and imported rice seeds from the Philippines and Taiwan, and use of high inputs in terms of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, etc, and increased area under cultivation. This largely contributed to the agricultural development of Punjab and Haryana, but it failed to generate adequate employment potential in the rural sector. While this has benefited the rich and progressive farmers, it has created a wide disparity between the rich and poor farmers because the latter could not afford high inputs. As a result, the rich farmers became richer and the poor became poorer. After introducing high-yielding seeds, the country made spectacular success on the food front in raising its food output to 212 million tonnes in 2003-04 from 51 million tonnes in 1947-48. But food production has now been falling. The target for food output for 2006-07 was fixed at 220 million tonnes but its output has touched hardly 209 million tonnes. The scenario on the food front in 2005-06 and 2004-05 has also not been encouraging. The present food production is not enough to feed our growing population of over 1100 million, if the entire half-fed people are fully fed. Today, one-third of our population is half-fed due to poverty and lack of purchasing power. In recent past, a large number of people died of starvation and malnutrition in the poverty-stricken regions of seven states. The population rise has nullified the benefits of higher production, and has been posing a serious threat to food security. The number of the hungry has been rising. The FAO has estimated that there are 221 million hungry people in India. The UNESCO’s global monitoring report 2007 says that 47 per cent children in India are malnourished. The UN has reported that nearly six million children in the world die of hunger and malnutrition every year. The UN has recently reported that more than 850 million people worldwide are hungry and are suffering from diseases and malnutrition. An inter-governmental panel on climate had reported that rising temperature will leave millions more people hungry by 2080, and an additional 200 to 600 million people across the world would face food shortage in the next 70 years. The UN agency has recently warned that global warming may lead to hunger in India. Poverty is the major contributing factor for the starvation deaths. Many government schemes for poverty alleviation remained on paper, and their benefits have not reached the deserving. There is no priority in policy planning to eliminate chronic hunger and rural poverty. There is need for social mobilisation to help the poor to improve their quality of life by creating an environment to empower them to reduce poverty. A World Development Report has cautioned that India will not be able to reduce poverty and improve human development by 2015 without socio-economic reforms in respect of better quality services, health, education, water, sanitation and electrification. The task of ensuring food and nutrition to a vast population is hugely challenging. This will depend largely on doubling our food production in the next 15 years, requiring an annual growth of 4.7 per cent, the present rate being 1.5 per cent. Presently, the yield of the newly-developed strains of wheat and rice has almost reached a plateau under optimum conditions in Punjab and Haryana. These states have also been facing soil health problems in respect of salinity and nutrient imbalance. The irrigation potential is exhausted. Also, micro-nutrient deficiencies are causing concern. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Laureate, who has recently been honoured by the USA, being regarded as the father of the Green Revolution in India, had now commented that wheat seeds which are being cultivated these days are not resistant to infection by UG-99 fungus. This fungus has been rusting the wheat plant and destroying it completely. It was originally detected in Uganda, and is now spreading to other African and Asian countries. It may soon spread to India and Pakistan where the staple food is wheat. No impact The so-called Green Revolution has not made an impact on cultivation in the dryland areas, and in respect of coarse grains and pulses due to non-availability of high-yielding seeds. About two-thirds of our cropped area under dryland farming account for 42 per cent of total food production. There is need to improve cultivation in this area for which we either wait for the miracle seed from abroad or develop the seed and the package of farming conditions ourselves. A second green revolution through genetically modified (GM) technology referred to as gene revolution has been advocated to improve low productivity. But it has to be ensured that crop bio-technology products are safe as it has created controversy that GM food involves the risk of organ abnormalities. This would require an independent national bio-technology regulatory authority to closely monitor rigorous bio-safety and risk assessment of bio-technology products before their release to the farmers. Recently, a controversy has arisen over the death of goats and sheep grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton fields due to the presence of toxins in some districts of Andhra Pradesh. The state government has advised the farmers not to allow animals to graze on Bt cotton fields. It is unfortunate that the right to food has not been given the overriding priority as there is hardly any concern over starvation deaths. The author is ex-principal scientist, IARI, New Delhi. http://internationalpost.blogspot.com Drip irrigation a boon to farmers Chitradurga: By adopting "in line dripper irrigation technique", onion farmers of Chitradurga have not only reaped a bumper crop, but also encouraged the Horticulture Department to seek special subsidy from the Government to popularise the technique. Drip irrigation was used in the district for other horticulture crops, but seldom for onion cultivation. Realising the significance of the technique, several farmers of the district have now adopted "in line dripper" facility, which has nearly doubled production. The advantage of the technique is that high yield could be obtained with minimum usage of water. Unlike the traditional flood irrigation, the new system sprinkles water uniformly even if the terrain is uneven. It also helps in applying fertilizers uniformly. "By installing a fertilizer chamber, fertilizers can be directly supplied through pipes itself. This will not only distribute fertilizers equally, but also help save labour cost", according to the Deputy Director of the Horticulture Department, Kadire Gowda. He said considering the benefit, the department had sought special permission to provide subsidy to encourage farmers to adopt the technique. With the grant of permission, Chitradurga became the first district in the State, where 75 per cent subsidy was being given to those who adopted this facility. Vasudeva of Burujinarappa village in Hiriyur taluk is one among the farmers who made onion cultivation profitable by adopting the new irrigation system. "Earlier, I was growing onion in three acres of land. With one borewell, I used to find it difficult to irrigate the crop. But now with the drip irrigation system, I am growing onion in five acres of land," he said. He said that the system had helped in harvesting good quality onions. Mr. Kadire Gowda said onion was grown in 20,000 hectares of land in the district and the new technique was used to irrigate 100 acres of land. With the traditional methods, farmers could harvest nearly seven tonnes of onion per acre for which they had to spend Rs. 20,000. "With the new system, farmer not only save up to Rs. 7,000 per acre, but also harvest over 10 tonnes of onion," he added. Though farmers are happy with the subsidy, they said that it should be given to at least two hectares of land instead of one, which would have helped them grow onion in a big way. http://www.hindu.com Indian agri institutes to tap commodities boom MUMBAI: Booming commodities market, food processing industry and mushrooming retail chains have resulted in high demand quality agriculture institutes across the country. The growing interest of the corporate sector in agri-schools has driven a number of these institutes to go global. The College of Agri-business Management (CABM) is in advanced talks with the University of Illinois, Iowa State University, University of Manitoba-Canada and the Cornell University. IIM-Lucknow is in talks with the University of Tennessee, University of South Carolina and Purdue University in the US, and Royal Agricultural College, UK. Simultaneously, many institutes, like IIM-Ahmedabad, are also encouraging students to take up student exchange programmes to international universities to understand nuances of the sector abroad. Two students from IIM-Lucknow will be going to Italy in June on the basis of papers they had submitted to the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA). Last year, a student from Ahmedabad had gone to a university in France and two French students had spent a semester at IIM-Ahmedabad. As part of the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative, the Ministry of Food Processing is also in talks with Cornell University to set up a world class technical institute for food processing in India. Of late, there has been a spurt in the flow of institutional credit availability in the sector. Already credit to agriculture is included in the priority sector list for lending purposes. Simultaneously, many international institutions have also shown a keen interest in providing funds to the sector. In December 2006, the Asian Development Bank approved a loan of US$ 1 billion for revamping the cooperative credit system. This year, the World Bank has approved a blend of loan and concessional credit of US $600 million to India under the Strengthening Rural Credit Cooperatives Project for beefing up its rural cooperative credit structure. All these would strengthen the Government's existing programme to reform and revitalise the country's rural credit cooperative banks (CCBs). Already 12 states have signed an agreement with the Centre and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for the rural cooperative credit structure reform programme. The private sector has also come forward to provide financial assistance for the mutual benefit of industry and farmers. For example, Hatsun Agro Product Ltd has signed up with the State Bank of India (SBI) to provide loans to dairy farmers for a contract farming programme, as a part of which the bank provides loans to small farmers and Hatsun deducts the repayment on the milk price paid to farmers. The unprecedented boom in commodity trading, which has multiplied by a whopping 28 times in just three years, has also opened a vast new job market that is now struggling to find skilled manpower. There are nearly 800 commodity broking houses, agri export and import companies and food processing firms across the country that are frantically searching for the right talent to take their business to the next level. Top-end business schools like IIM Ahmedabad, Management Development Institute (MDI) and Institute of Management Technology (IMT) have prioritised commodity trading in their syllabus. Leading companies have also been recruiting from these institutes. They included this ICICI Prudential, Infosys, Nestle, Mahindra and Mahindra, RPG Retail, Standard Chartered, Aditya Birla, Godrej Agrovet, Pantaloons, Marico and Rabo Bank among others. http://www.commodityonline.com Kiwi created food processing technology Monday, 1 October 2007 Press Release: Foundation for Research Science And Technology International sales for Kiwi created food processing technology Months of hard work in the United States have paid off for Auckland Company Fresh Appeal Ltd, with a US$700,000 deal signed for its innovative technology that keeps sliced apples and other produce fresh for extended periods. Originally developed by scientists at HortResearch, the technology uses a unique, preservative-free process to wash sliced produce and, at the same time, kill any potential contaminants using ultraviolet light. The produce stays fresh and crisp, with no browning, for up to 14 days. The technology is marketed by Fresh Appeal Limited, jointly owned by HortResearch and technology development company, Logistics Solutions. Fresh Appeal's Chief Executive, Flemming H. Rasmussen, says the company's world-leading solution is being licensed to an undisclosed food processor in the US to prepare fresh sliced apples for retail and food services sales. "This is a significant market breakthrough for us. After identifying and quantifying the opportunity in the US earlier this year, we spent months getting to know the market and pitching our technology to potential clients. "The deal gives us the foothold we need to roll-out our technology to a range of other clients and locations in the US," says Mr Rasmussen. The research and development underpinning Fresh Appeal's technology received investment of NZ$170,000 from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, through its Technology for Business Growth (TBG) scheme. Foundation Business Manager Stephen Flint says the deal secured by Fresh Appeal demonstrates New Zealand’s ability to marry leading edge science capability with commercial opportunities. "One of New Zealand's core strengths is in creating innovative, added value products for the global food industry. Fresh Appeal is doing just that and delivering a return to the New Zealand economy from its research and development investment." Apple slices processed with Fresh Appeal's technology have been selling in New Zealand supermarkets for some time and are available in many schools, at service stations, selective cafes and food service providers. One of the company’s processing units is also used by a UK apple processor, but Mr Rasmussen says the US deal represents the company's first significant move into the international market. "This is the first deal where we have licensed our technology, rather than just supplying the manufacturing equipment. We will earn ongoing revenue through royalties for fruit processed and by supplying the naturally produced minerals and vitamins which act as anti-oxidant or anti-browning agents to keep the apples fresh." Fresh Appeal staff will be overseeing installation of the processing technology in the first quarter of 2008. The technology meets rigorous US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety standards. Produce going through the Fresh Appeal process is sliced before being treated in a unique, ultraviolet disinfection system. Ultraviolet light is also used to kill off food-borne pathogens like E.coli, salmonella and listeria and dipped in an anti-oxidant before being packaged. While apples were Fresh Appeal's first product, the natural disinfection technology is also being used on other fruit, such as oranges and grapes, and a range of vegetables including potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. Mr Rasmussen says while extended shelf life for fresh produce is attractive to the global food market, the technology's real benefit is in food safety. "In the USA in particular, there have been a number of food scares in recent years as a result of people eating, and in some cases dying from, fresh produce carrying harmful pathogens. Our technology is proven to destroy these nasties and has the potential to set new, international standards in applied safety and hygiene within the industry." In New Zealand, Fresh Appeal is continuing to research applications of its technology to new fruits and vegetables and businesses that can benefit from the efficiencies its solution offers. "For example, we are working with a manufacturer of a perishable product with 4-5 days shelf life that currently runs its processing line three times a week to keep up with market demand. Because our solution offers a shelf life of up to 14 days for this specific product, they can do longer runs less often, thus driving their costs down and achieving economies of scale not previously possible." http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0710/S00004.htm Precision Agriculture: Changing the Face of Farming Doug Rickman, J.C. Luvall, Joey Shaw, Paul Mask, David Kissel and Dana Sullivan Sidebar: Defining images A description of agriculture is one of superlatives. Its economic impact, extent of land use, and environmental and social significance are all of the first magnitude. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates there are 2.1 million farms in the United States, using 941 million acres (about 1.5 million square kilometers) of land, with production worth $200 billion a year. Just as manufacturing has changed radically in the last two centuries, farming has also changed. The classic picture of the farmer-one of bucolic simplicity-is wildly out of date. Costs, technology and economies of scale have driven commercial farms around the world to change. And remote sensing is beginning to play a large role. American farmers annually spend $23 billion for fertilizer, chemicals and seeds and $9 billion for energy. A harvester, which costs approximately $125,000, cuts a swath 5 meters wide with each pass, measuring the amount of grain and its moisture content on the fly. Juggling spot market prices versus current delivery contracts versus available storage in grain elevators on the farm and at the co-op, the farmer must balance complex business factors even in the middle of the harvest. In the United States, a farm operator must now manage a square mile or more to be viable. The size of an individual production unit-a field-now measures hundreds of meters on a side. Typically, all portions of that unit are treated the same. Crop varieties, seed density, soil preparation, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are uniformly applied. But plants respond to major environmental and soil variables that vary on fine scales. The resulting mismatch between the uniformity of crop treatments and the uniqueness of individual plants’ physiological responses means some portion of the farmer’s costs are going to be wasted. Precision agriculture integrates a suite of technologies that retain the benefits of large-scale mechanization, which is essential to large fields, but recognizes local variation. By using satellite data to determine soil conditions and plant development, these technologies can lower the production cost by fine-tuning seeding, fertilizer, chemical and water use, and potentially increasing production and lowering costs-all benefiting the farmer. In turn, precision agriculture may have significant impacts far beyond the individual farm. Pollution, for example, is a common problem stemming from agricultural practices. Excess agricultural chemicals from a field must go somewhere, and somewhere frequently means the common environment. Precision agriculture can reduce the volume of those extra chemicals. Application of precision agriculture has at its heart two spatial requirements: concurrent knowledge of where the farm equipment is as it moves across a field and the value of one or more variables as a function of position within the field. These two requirements each contain a "where" and a "what". The spatial precision needed for "where" varies from a few meters to a few centimeters, but GPS, computer circuits and electronic systems can now satisfy that. In fact, using real-time kinematic GPS, it is practical to automatically guide huge farm machines to stay along a track hundreds of meters long with only centimeter-scale deviations. The second requirement, the "what", is where remote sensing comes into the picture. Our NASA team of geoscientists is working with the Advanced Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS) remote-sensing instrument flown on the NASA Stennis Lear jet to understand the driving thermal processes in crops and to fine-tune precision agriculture capabilities. Meeting the challenge Remote sensing has had agricultural applications from the earliest days. In turn, agriculture has helped drive the design of major remote-sensing instruments. For example, the spectral bands, spatial resolution and orbital elements of the original Multi-Spectral Scanner on the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, launched in 1972, were influenced by field size, field spectrometer data on crop leaf and soil reflectance, and crop life cycles. To a large extent our work has grown out of the remote-sensing technology and conceptual framework developed by geologists. For example the drive to look at the physics of reflectance and atmospheric corrections is rooted in work done in the early 1980s by the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. Our work on emissivity and thermal behavior of plants pulls on research done using the Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner, an instrument originally conceived for geologic applications. Even our ability to geometrically map the airborne imagery onto the globe was explicitly developed because of the need to map sediment flow patterns along the coast of Louisiana. This influence has continued and can be found in the Thematic Mapper and a number of other sensors. Agriculture also has been the focus of major research programs, for example the Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys Through Aerospace Remote Sensing (AgRISTARS) program, funded by USDA and NASA from 1974 into the early 1980s. Academic, government and corporate researchers have sought to apply remote sensing to a wide range of agricultural challenges, such as detecting drought, controlling fungus, diseases and insects, forecasting production, and determining acreage per crop. But utility has not been easy to achieve because of numerous difficulties, both in logistics and basic physics. Clouds are one practical problem. Long intervals between satellite passes can easily miss critical growth stages. Physically, the reflectivity of one green plant looks very much like that of any other green plant. Multiple reflectance sources, such as soil, shadow, moisture and plant growth, each with a range of properties, can combine in multiple ways to give non-unique signals. And many of the phenomena are not independent. For example, volumetric variation of the sand percentage changes the water availability profile with time, which affects plant growth under some but not all rainfall histories. Changing the amount of sand also mandates changes in other soil constituents, which in turn also have other impacts. These problems frequently cause errors. For example, when processing data sets that cover 100 kilometers or more on a side, it is common to have the analytical tools erroneously determine that there is corn in the middle of wheat fields and wheat in the middle of a city. One of the laboratory directors responsible for some of the AgRISTARS work, Wayne Mooneyhan, commented, "we were more successful estimating wheat yields by monitoring the Soviet lake levels than by actually monitoring the fields." In that case, the amount of water used for irrigation was a better estimator than direct observation of the fields. For many applications of remote sensing in agriculture, the solution to such problems has been the use of statistical abstractions, which provide a simple number representing some feature of a large area, rather than identifying exactly where corn or soybeans are located, for example. Because large areas are necessary for this methodology to be valid, the agricultural consumer of remote sensing tends to have interests far broader than a single field or even a county. Therefore, government agencies, such as state and USDA agricultural statistical services, are typical users. But precision agriculture is not about an abstract measurement or characterization. It is about specific values at exact locations and helping the individual farmer. This change in focus requires a recognition of why the earlier work has had limited impact at the finer scale. We have identified several areas as high priority for acquiring more data, including acquisition conditions (cloud cover, time of day, soil condition, etc.), the nature of the signal (atmospheric effects, improper models, erroneous assumptions, etc.), and cost and applicability to the customer. We have been working to meet these challenges, several of which can be solved simply with the right engineering choices. For example, using an airborne sensor, we have addressed acquisition conditions and timeliness. Other challenges are less straightforward, such as cost, which is a difficult concept, as it depends on the market structure. Simple estimates range over several orders of magnitude. Therefore, we must defer tackling these economic challenges until we have answers to more technical questions. Our team has approached the other problems by integrating agronomy, plant physiology and soil science with a physics-driven framework and attention to thermodynamics. Our current results, which are by no means complete, are extremely encouraging. We have shown that the temperature of a crop can be highly correlated with its yield. The plant can be considered as an engine for evaporating water, and a relationship exists between how much water is evaporated and the productivity of the plant. We also have seen that multi-band thermal imagery is sensitive to soil conditions. Matching energy and yield The dominant "design criteria" for land plants is to shed the majority of all incoming radiation. Of the total incoming energy, a plant uses about 1 percent for photosynthesis. If the plant does not shed the remaining energy, it will quickly heat up until the biochemistry involved fails and the plant dies. About 2 percent of the incoming energy is used to heat the mass of the plant. Six percent is used to heat the air, and some 10 percent of the incoming energy is rejected through reflection. Approximately 43 percent of the energy is converted to heat and radiated to the sky in thermal wavelengths. Virtually all the remaining energy, 48 percent, is used to evaporate water. Thus a plant is like an engine whose major function is to convert water into water vapor using solar radiation. The water used for cooling is obtained by the roots, moved to the leaf and then evaporates. The plant must also move the dissolved gases, carbon dioxide and oxygen, and various biochemicals involved in photosynthesis. With the efficiency of a good engineering design, evolution has given plants a single mechanism for both cooling and chemical transport. This mechanism — evapotranspiration — intrinsically ties the thermodynamic behavior of a plant dealing with incoming radiation to its basic biochemistry. Anything that decreases evapotranspiration will decrease the plant's synthesis of chemicals. As evapotranspiration decreases, that portion of the energy not used to evaporate water must go into other parts of the energy equation. Therefore, if we can say something about the energy balance for a plant, we likely can say something about the productivity of the plant. And we can then apply these concepts to an entire crop. A single field is made up of plants that are genetically very similar and of the same age. Thus even some minor factors, which have been ignored in the above energy balance discussion, tend to be suppressed. Cooler areas of a given field, we believe, will tend to be more productive, and our results substantiate this. In properly acquired imagery, high-yield areas are noticeably cooler. In fact it is possible to get very good correlations between remote-sensing imagery and yield from images taken a long time before harvest. And these correlations are markedly higher than can be achieved with other approaches. Making a difference We must resolve many challenges before this relatively simple relationship between temperature and yield becomes a generic, commercially viable tool (see sidebar and images). The approach cannot rest solely on the correlation between temperature and yield. Still, we have learned much in the last few years and believe our integration of geologic remote sensing with other fields of expertise was a wise investment. Clearly none of the specialties alone could develop, let alone test, the basic approach we are now finding so powerful. This is the path that will ultimately produce information needed by farmers. But we also recognize how small a portion of the total problem has been solved. Having developed the basic logic, built prototype tools and performed initial tests, we can see everything else that remains to be done. And problems, both scientific and practical, are everywhere. At times the list of problems seems endless. We have not established sensitivities. We have not robustly segregated the contributions of crop residue, soil moisture, shadows, plant and soil to the energy leaving the surface. What we do is extremely expensive and difficult. It is experimental in methodology and uses research-oriented tools. We are constantly alert to the practicality of moving our results into commercial applications. We know another airborne instrument will have to be available. Atmospheric parameters will have to be measured automatically. The software will have to be rewritten for speed. But the potential is also enormous. Agriculture is a huge portion of our economy. Just a 1 percent increase in efficiency is a $ 2 billion change. We all depend on farmers, literally, for the bread we eat. No other human activity has an impact on land that matches that of farming. If application of precision agriculture can help farmers better manage their land, we all may benefit. Defining images Before precision agriculture can reach its potential, researchers must resolve several challenges, both mechanically and quantitatively. Several examples follow. Images and text provided by Doug Rickman. UNITS Ordinary remote-sensing data are not in reproducible units. The basic measurements are on an ordinal scale of varying significance; in other words values are simply "brighter" or "darker". To overcome this challenge, our long-term goal is to convert all the remote-sensing measurements into physically meaningful units, and to be able to fully model the radiation entering and leaving each pixel of the data set. Doing this in a manner that is driven by first principles requires detailed, site-specific knowledge of the atmosphere, modeling of radiative transfer in the atmosphere and an active calibration source within the sensor. Although the process is long, complex and demanding, it is now possible to explore quantifiable relationships, such as the sensitivity of the remote-sensing data to leaf nitrogen content, and to hope that the results can be applied generically. Moving into calibrated measurements allows direct measurement of soil chemistry. Emission from a material is a function of temperature and emissivity. Emissivity is the ratio of energy emitted by a material compared to the energy emitted by a "blackbody" (something that absorbs all light) at the same temperature. For virtually all earth surface materials, temperature is far more important than emissivity and therefore dominates imagery made from thermal (7- to 13-micrometer wavelengths) spectral bands. It also means imagery from multiple thermal bands is very highly correlated. At Earth’s surface conditions, emissivity is nearly independent of temperature and particle size — controlled by chemical properties. Vegetation and water have essentially no spectral variation in these wavelengths, but the silicate and carbonate bonds of many minerals do affect emissivity. By making a color composite image, assigning different spectral bands to each of the color guns of the display, an image is made in which anything that is not gray has different emissivities in the disparate bands. In these images, any color difference is due to changes in mineralogy alone. In urban areas, as seen at left in Salt Lake City, Utah, it is easy to see changes in paving along highways and in airport runways. The emissivity features of individual fields tend to be much less dramatic, as the original features are much lower contrast and plowing has often diffused the boundaries by mixing. This image is a color composite of three thermal bands, which are dominated by temperature. In a color composite, perfectly correlated values (i.e. similar temperatures) become gray, and thermal band data correlation is extremely high. Any color variation is due exclusively to differences in emissivity between bands. Note the change in paving types within the airport and along the various roadways. Data from the ATLAS sensor over Salt Lake City, Utah. But in some cases, such as breaking up of soil crusts, the plowing can lead to very striking features, because the soil crusts are made of oriented and segregated size fractions, whose mineralogy is not the same as the average composition of the parent soil. More usefully, with quantitative remote-sensing measurements, it becomes practical to do mineralogical evaluations of soils that are spatially separated by arbitrary distances, as seen in the image at right. Vegetation and water have nearly constant emissivities across the 7-to 13-micrometer spectral region, and the correlation makes them appear gray in color composites of multiple thermal bands. The soils in these fields are rich in quartz sands and clay minerals. Rainfall causes segregation of the soil constituents. Plowing remixes them. The color variation in the imagery is controlled by these factors. ATLAS data from Georgia. ALIASING With high spatial resolution comes aliasing, where a non-existent pattern appears because of sample spacing. The classic aliasing example is the spinning propeller that appears to be moving in reverse of the true direction. With crops, spatial sampling on the scale of a meter combines with the row spacing to alias pseudo-rows that are tens of meters wide. To paraphrase the old saw, in such cases you literally cannot see the crop for the rows. The apparent crop rows' spacing is larger than the roads and homes in the image, which was taken with a nominal ground resolution of approximately 2 meters. The spacing of the rows is less. Pictured at left is aliasing of crop rows into longer spatial wavelengths. The apparent rows are false. Visual clues to this are seen by comparing the apparent row spacing with the size of roads and homes. The imagery was taken with a nominal ground resolution of approximately 2 meters. The spacing of the rows is less. Rickman and Luvall are both researchers in the Earth Science Department at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Shaw and Mask are researchers at Auburn University. Kissel is a professor at the University of Georgia, and Sullivan works out of the Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS. Link: Satellite precision farming," Geotimes News Note, August 2001 References: Barnes, E.M., and Baker, M.G. (2000). Multispectral data for mapping soil texture: possibilities and limitations. Am. Soc. Agricultural Engineers, 16, 731-41. Bryson, R. J. 2000. Remote sensing in agriculture. 26-28 June 2000. Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Environmental Remote Sensing Center. 2000. Earth observation satellites: future. Available at http://www.ersc.wisc.edu/resources/EOSF.html. Thomasson, J.A., Sui, R., Cox, M.S., and Al-Rajehy, A. (2001). Soil reflectance sensing for determining soil properties in precision agriculture. Am. Soc. Agricultural Engineers, 44, 1445-53. http://www.geotimes.org
Biotechnology
India to roll out real-time data on all standing crops-towards 'planetary biomass management' The bioeconomy has the theoretical potential to replace a large amount of fossil fuels. Multiple analyses and projections indicate that global sustainable biomass potentials equate to a maximum of around 1400 Exajoules per year by 2050 (earlier post). Currently, the world consumes around 380EJ of fossil energy. However, in order to tap this potential efficiently, new technologies and policies have to be implemented. Interventions will have to occur in a broad range of sectors, from the way livestock is produced to the manner in which biomass is converted into fuels and energy; from carbon management to trade reform. One of the crucial strategies needed to ensure that biomass trade between countries and continents happens in a sustainable, carbon-reducing and efficient way is to monitor land-use and emission patterns globally. In a globalized world and in the era of intercontinental biomass trade, the use of green fuels in one region can have a range of unintended social, economic and ecological effects in other places. Ideally, earth observation data on land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use in forestry and agriculture would be combined and inform a kind of 'planetary biomass management' strategy (ealier post). A large amount of this kind of data gathered by different countries and institutions is already available-now it needs to be integrated into a more coherent framework. However, most data are being acquired by highly developed countries, whereas developing nations urgently need access to similar data as they stand to become the largest bioenergy producers. India is taking a first step towards this aim, and interestingly it is relying on an open source platform to do so. The country's Department of Science and Technology (DST) intends to roll out a mechanism to collect real-time satellite data on the health/stress status of all standing crops in the country, and to advise state governments and other stakeholders on how best to deal with the data. The real-time monitoring of crops will be an invaluable input to the central and state governments to make timely interventions through critical decisions on support prices, credit availability, import and export policies, insurance schemes, irrigation schedules and, indeed, the use of biomass for energy. All agricultural crops have been mapped for the purpose and a 'biomass index' has been developed: This will enable us to monitor crops and take critical decisions. We would also be able to advise the farmer on inputs required to ensure that his crop stays healthy. We believe that informed decision-making in this manner would ultimately leave more money in the farmer's hands. - Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science and Technology Data on biomass is collected from a range of remotely sensed data of a number of satellites, both Indian and foreign. There are a number of bands in each satellite which picks up data of biomass on a village-to-village basis. Each band of each satellite has different characteristics. A DST team has worked on these bands using a technique called 'principal component analysis' to arrive at a composite digital image which combines data from different bands of different satellites. The biomass index has been developed based on this composite digital image. This provides a complex computational challenge involving the development of suitable algorithms. The biomass index so developed is a numerical quantity, which can be used to identify crops, assess acreage and determine the health or stress of crop. "It's all basically collection of data [...] and using an algorithm for the purpose of determining various parameters to come to certain conclusions," Sibal said. This will be a very innovative method of assessing crop composition, crop productivity and crop health on a weekly basis. It is possible to have almost complete data at the village level. The method has been tested and validated on a pilot basis. The methodology makes use of data from a variety of satellites and most of this is in public domain and freely available. It is, therefore, cheap and has the advantage of being based on an 'open source' platform. http://biopact.com
Engineering
Feeding The World Without Genetic Engineering The work of a Kansas State University professor is challenging the assumption that genetically engineered plants are the great scientific and technological revolution in agriculture and the only efficient and cheap way to feed a growing population. Jianming Yu, an assistant professor of agronomy, is teaming with Rex Bernardo, a professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota, on research with marker-assisted selection. This agricultural technology offers a sophisticated method to greatly accelerate classical breeding through genetic analysis and selection of existing natural diversity in various crops without having to resort to alien species. Currently, marker-assisted selection has been a routine in many private seed companies with large-scale fingerprinting, global germplasm assessment and comprehensive bio informatics support. Yu's and Bernardo's research is focused on breeding methodology, finding more efficient ways to breed better varieties of corn, sorghum, wheat or barley that yield higher, require less irrigation and are resistant to diseases in farmers' fields. The pair's work was recently published in an edition of the scientific journal Crop Science. "With abundant molecular markers that can be routinely processed with modern genomic technology, we found it is more efficient to focus on selection based information all across the genome rather than the traditional way of genomic regions containing signals that pass a threshold," Yu said. Their research is "a result of our constant deliberation of how to incorporate modern genomic technologies into breeding process, a more general term as genomic-assisted plant breeding, which differs from what scientists have been doing-using markers to guide the introgression of single or multiple disease resistance genes," Yu said. "The traditional way is to identify genome regions that show significant information," he said. "The new way is to consider all information genomewide. In other words, we strategically shifted the focus from finding the most interesting genome areas to considering all information simultaneously. This is critical, especially given that most of traits with agricultural importance are controlled by many interacting genomic regions and their individual effects are relatively small." Yu and Bernardo plan to conduct experiments with sorghum in Kansas and maize in Minnesota. "It will provide breeders, public or private, a powerful tool to advance their breeding practices," Yu said. http://www.terradaily.com
Nanotechnology
New Feedstock for Biofuels Asia's efforts to adopt biofuels are faltering as the surge in food prices forces governments to scramble for crops other than corn and palm oil with which to make the fuels. Unlikely plants such as cassava and sweet sorghum are emerging alongside the better-known jatropha as alternatives, illustrating the pressure on fast-growing emerging economies to cut crude-oil consumption and pollutants while keeping food prices low. If successful, the shift to marginal, low-maintenance crops as feedstock could yield the policy push that is necessary for the growth of the Asian biofuels industry, experts say. The crop switch also could benefit the region's land-rich, populous countries by unlocking the value of less-fertile areas where plants such as jatropha, a hardy shrub whose seeds are pressed to yield biodiesel, and cassava are easily grown. Aware of the potential to create jobs and lift incomes in poor regions, governments are pushing ahead with investment in refineries and with other initiatives such as loans to farmers. Biofuels, which include ethanol and biodiesel, can be made from many plants. But readily available food crops such as corn, rapeseed and oil palm have become the first option in many countries, fueling demand for these crops and a bruising round of food inflation that has pushed up the cost of many staples. The price of corn has nearly doubled from 2005 levels while that of palm oil has risen 70% since the start of last year. China, like the U.S., makes much of its ethanol from corn and is now the world's third-largest producer by capacity, trailing the U.S. and Brazil. Early this year, Beijing banned new corn-based ethanol refineries, worried that the extensive use of corn would push grain prices even higher and require imports. China also has scaled down its annual ethanol-output target to two million tons by 2010 from five million tons. Its first cassava-based ethanol plant is expected to start operation in December. Set up by state-run China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Corp. at a cost of 750 million yuan, about $100 million, the plant is based in the cassava-rich Guangxi region and has an annual capacity of 200,000 metric tons. "The Chinese government is looking at alternative crops such as wheat sorghum and cassava for producing biofuels, This is a good solution, as farmers can make profits from growing these crops while food supply is not compromised." Thailand makes most of its ethanol from sugar cane and molasses. But cassava, which is plentiful, is gaining in popularity because it can be grown year round and is easy to harvest. "This is the plant of the future," said Sriroth Klanarong, director of the Cassava and Starch Technology Research Unit at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The Thai government has approved 45 ethanol plants with potential production capacity of around 10.9 million liters a day and more than half are cassava-based, accounting for around 70% to 80% of the total capacity, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Although debate continues about the extent to which crop-based fuels cut carbon emissions, their use, especially as additives to motor fuels, has caught on in the U.S. and Europe with the help of government mandates and subsidies. China in 2002 mandated 10% ethanol blending in nine of its 22 provinces. It hasn't extend the requirement to more areas. Malaysia, where palm oil is used as feedstock for biodiesel, has a 5% blending mandate but has said it will delay implementation till palm oil prices fall below 2,000 ringgit, or about $590, roughly 25% below the current level. http://online.wsj.com Wireless watering: new irrigation technologies from ARS can help conserve a vital resource This 1,063 word article is taken from the 01 July 2007 edition of Agricultural Research. In the small farming town of Sidney, Montana, Robert Evans adjusts his Bluetooth. He's not chatting with colleagues or closing a business deal. He's watering his fields. A research leader at ARS's Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Evans is using the latest in wireless communications technology to boost irrigation efficiency. Thanks to Bluetooth and a wireless network of small soil-moisture and temperature sensors, the field in front of him is able to continuously dictate its exact water needs. Signals sent to an irrigation station tell individual sprinklers just how much water to emit and where. This system, the ultimate in high-tech precision irrigation, was built around the concept that most agricultural fields are filled with environmental nuance. Because of factors like soil type, subsurface conditions, topography, drainage issues, and disease problems, a piece of farmland that looks uniform on the surface is, in reality, a complicated, irregular patchwork of smaller plots, each defined by its own set of problems. That's why an automated irrigation system like this one--which doesn't dole out a drop of water anywhere unless told to--is so critical to efforts to conserve the world's water and fertilizer. http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=541465 Baby steps to reach out to consumers Even as nanotech researchers continue to look for the killer-app, arrays of nano-enabled consumer products have burst into the markets. More than 500 products using nanotechnology are doing rounds in the market. "Nanotechnology is still nascent, but certainly the momentum is picking up. There is sincere research work going on in many countries Stains-free clothes, computer chips with better memory, research on drugs for chronic and genetic diseases, bacteria-proof knives and forks and lightweight sports equipment are the result of nanotech applications. This technology is already being applied in a wide range of industries such as healthcare, textiles, agricultures, IT, materials, telecom, chemical, automotive and energy production. "Within the next decade, nanotechnology will have a huge effect on many industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, energy, communications, transportation and electronics. Nanotechnology promises to aid in the creation of innovative products in many industries. "Some researchers are working on nanoscale devices, which will be commercialised within the next 10 years," he says. It is assumed by industry analysts that nanotechnology can transform virtually every industrial sector and private firms are ready to exploit this technology for commercial benefits. They point that more than 200 nanoscience and nanotech patents and patent applications have been filed in nanotech R&D globally. The turnover in nanotech products is expected to go up to 1,000 billion Euros by 2015. In three years, governments and major coporations are expected to invest about $4 billion annually in nanotech research. Countries like the US, Canada, Japan and China haveearmarked big budgets for basic research in this area. Global demand for nano-scale materials, tools, and devices is expected to increase up to $28.7 billion in 2008—an average annual growth of 30.6%. Indian nanotechnology sector, which is estimated to be around $100 million, is poised to grow at over 35% per year. In the wake of India emerging as an important hub for R&D outsourcing, various global majors in the business of technology are rushing to India for opening up R&D centres. There are big outsourcing opportunities in nanotechnology for countries that have trained manpower in the science field. With a rich pool of scientific talent and cost effectiveness, India will be a major beneficiary of nanotech outsourcing. Technology, improved products, collaborations, outsourcing, investments and skilled employers are the main growth drivers of the nanotech industry." http://www.financialexpress.com AIXTRON AG: AIXTRON acquires Nanoinstruments Ltd. AIXTRON acquires Nanoinstruments Ltd. Product Portfolio now expanded to Carbon Nanotubes and other Nanomaterials AIXTRON AG and Nanoinstruments Ltd., GB, have agreed on the acquisition of Nanoinstruments Ltd. business by AIXTRON. Under the terms of the agreement, the price of the transaction will not be disclosed. Founded in 2005 as a Spin-off from the University of Cambridge, Nanoinstruments is a manufacturer of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and plasma enhanced CVD RESEARCH systems for Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and other nanomaterials. CNT is a promising material solution for many Future optical and electronic devices and applications. CNT is currently being investigated by many research groups as a promising material to be used in flat panel displays, heat sinks, integrated circuits, sensors or as electron guns. The addition of Nanoinstruments' products to AIXTRON's portfolio of deposition equipment creates new potential opportunities in the mid-and Long term within the Nanotechnology application space for the company. AIXTRON Nanoinstruments will focus both on R&D and industrial scale CNT equipment, combining the unique expertise of Nanoinstruments with AIXTRON's technical resources, manufacturing capabilities and its international customer service and support network. Key members of the present Nanoinstruments management team will join the new AIXTRON Nanoinstruments technology unit, including Nanoinstruments' founders, Dr. Ken Teo and Dr.Nalin Rupesinghe. Paul Hyland, President and CEO of AIXTRON said; 'We have been very impressed with what the Nanoinstruments team has achieved in the Short time they have been operating. They have already supplied systems to key research and industrial institutions around the world which are using their equipment to push CNT technology into novel electronic applications. This emerging technology is highly complimentary to our core skill set and so we are eagerly looking forward to Ken and Nalin joining the AIXTRON team at an exciting time for their customers. Coupled with our existing extensive experience and technical strength, we believe that we can, through the Nanoinstruments team, expand the business in the very interesting nanotechnology arena. Dr. Ken Teo adds: 'We are convinced that AIXTRON is the right partner to take our technology to the NEXT level. Our existing and future customers will strongly benefit from the acquisition not only in terms of increased R&D capabilities, but also from AIXTRON's production capabilities and its worldwide sales, service and support network. We will be able to operate more closely with our customers through AIXTRON's subsidiaries in Europe, USA, Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. About AIXTRON AIXTRON AG is a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. The Company's technology solutions are used by a diverse range of customers worldwide to build advanced components for electronic and opto-electronic applications based on compound, silicon, or organic semiconductor materials. Such components are used in fiber optic communication systems, wireless and mobile telephony applications, optical and electronic storage devices, computing, signaling and lighting, as well as a range of other leading-edge technologies. About Nanoinstruments Nanoinstruments Ltd was founded in 2005 to supply enabling nanotube, nanowire and nanofiber equipment to the Nanotechnology market. The company is based in the UK with its headquarters in Cambridge and its manufacturing facility in Meldreth, near Cambridge. Nanoinstruments' equipment, with an installed base spanning America, Europe and Asia, are used in research and industry for various emerging applications in electronics. Forward-Looking Statements This News release may contain forward-looking statements about the business, financial condition, results of operations and earnings outlook of AIXTRON within the meaning of the 'safe harbor' provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 'may', 'will', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'contemplate', 'intend', 'plan', 'believe', 'continue' and 'estimate', and variations of these words and similar expressions, identify these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements reflect our current views and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. The following factors, and others which are discussed in AIXTRON's public filings and submissions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are among those that may cause actual and future results and trends to differ materially from our forward-looking statements: actual customer orders received by AIXTRON; the extent to which chemical vapor deposition, or CVD, technology is demanded by the market place; the timing of final acceptance of products by customers; the financial climate and accessibility of financing; general conditions in the thin film equipment market and in the macro-economy; cancellations, rescheduling or delays in product shipments; manufacturing capacity constraints; lengthy sales and qualification cycles; difficulties in the production process; changes in semiconductor industry growth; increased competition; exchange rate fluctuations; availability of government funding; variability and availability of interest rates; delays in developing and commercializing new products; general economic conditions being less favorable than expected; and other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and AIXTRON does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law. http://www.ad-hoc-news.de Russian government orders probing proposals for use of nanotechnology The Russian nanotechnology supervision council should give consideration to proposals from Russian scientists for diverse uses of nanotechnology in the economy and healthcare, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has said. Ivanov heard the proposals from Andrei Alexenko, director of Angstrom Center Nanotech, and Pavel Erman, general director of the Everest K company, during a meeting with them. Alexenko said a security device had been developed that was tentatively called "nano-nose" because it "sniffs everything out." Ivanov suggested that "nano-nose" be registered as a trademark. The scientists also said they had developed a medical nano "bio-defense." These are nano devices that can be used to monitor a patient's health after taking medicine, Alexenko said. "This bio-defense can be used at hospitals and prisons. Alexenko also suggested using iron nano particles for the pre-sowing treatment of seeds. This would raise crop yields 20%, and, "moreover, seeds treated before sowing don't die. Alexenko also said there existed nano railway sleepers that can be used to trace missing cars and containers. Erman asked Ivanov to help organize the manufacture of nano concrete. "We are at the stage of industrial production but we have some problems," Erman said. National electricity company UES possesses a tremendous number of dumps of ash that could be used to make nano concrete, but the UES management bars access to them, he said. http://www.nanowerk.com Global nanotech code up for consultation A global consultation is underway to create a code that would guide companies developing, manufacturing and selling nanotechnology-engineered products. Nanotechnology is championed by several manufacturers for use in packaging to extend shelf life, or more controversially, for improving the nutritional content and health impact of foods. The code is being developed by the UK's Royal Society, the Nanotechnology Industries Association, Insight Investment, and the government-sponsored Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network. The code aims to protect researchers, plant workers and consumers from the potential detrimental health effects of nano-engineered products and packaging. The groups have launched an international consultation on the standards, an effort to create a consensus on what good practice looks like in the current absence of legislation. The standard would provide guidance on what organisations and businesses can do to demonstrate they are managing nanotechnologies responsibly. The groups intend that the code would be applicable the world over, by companies and organisations large and small that are working with nanotechnologies.The use of nanotechnology to develop beneficial foods and smart packaging presents a huge commercial opportunity for a wide variety of sectors from medicines to computing, from chemicals to food and consumer products, the organisations stated. However, as an emerging science nanotechnology is beset by uncertainty over the potential environmental, health and safety risks of some nanoscale materials.Nanotechnologies are already being used in a vast array of products in many industry sectors. A draft code up for consultation is based on seven principles. The principles aim to ensure that a company's management takes responsibility for safe nanotechnology development. In particular each company would be required to identify and minimise sources of risk for workers handling products using nanotechnologies, at all stages in the production process or in industrial use, to ensure high standards of occupational health and safety.They would also require their suppliers to follow the code. According to the Woodrow Wilson International Center only six percent of Americans say they have "heard a lot" about nanotechnology, while a massive 70 percent say they have only heard a little or nothing at all. The organization is part of the UK effort to develop a global code "Even though the number of nanotechnology-enabled consumer products - from dietary supplements to skin products to electronic devices - has more than doubled to over 500 products since last year, the 'needle' on public awareness of nanotechology remains stuck at disappointingly low levels,". The centre, whose members belong to the scientific community, believes that governments have been lagging behind in overseeing the development of nanotechnology.Opinion on nanotechnology is a hot debate in the food industry, which uses the science in a variety of applications, particularly for improving the quality of packaging materials.Last year sales of nanotechnology-related products in all segments reached almost $1bn (€744m), jumping from $150m (€112m) in 2002, according to consultant Helmut Kaiser. Three years ago less than 40 nanopackaging products were on the market, compared to over 400 available at present. Consultant Helmut Kaiser estimates that nanotechnology will change 25 per cent of the food packaging market, currently worth $100bn (€74bn). The EU is also wary of how nanotechnology is used in the food industry. Earlier this year the Commission's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) said that new risk assessment methods are needed because chemicals in their nanoparticle form have potentially very different properties than their larger physical forms. According to the SCENIHR, nanoparticles may move inside the body, reaching the blood and organs such as the liver or the heart, and may also cross cell membranes. These particles may then lead to lung inflammation and heart problems. Nanotechnology is a relatively new science involving the manipulation of materials at near atomic scales. http://www.foodproductiondaily.com Mazda Develops a World-First Catalyst Material Structure for Autos Using Single Nanotechnology Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a world's first catalyst for cars that uses single-nanotechnology to create a catalyst material structure which substantially reduces the amount of precious metals that are used, such as platinum and palladium. The new development enables Mazda to reduce the amount of platinum and palladium used in automotive catalysts by 70 to 90 percent. It does not result in any changes in the performance of purifying gas emissions and maintains the high durability of conventional catalysts. Single-nanotechnology is a technology that can control even smaller particles than nanotechnology. In automotive catalysts, precious metals promote chemical reactions that purify exhaust gases on their surfaces. In conventional catalysts, the precious metals are adhered to a base material. Exposure to exhaust gas heat causes the precious metal to agglomerate into larger particles. This reduces the catalyst's effective surface area and catalytic activity, which requires the use of a significant amount of precious metals to counter and maintain an efficient purification performance. In order to increase the precious metal surface area, Mazda developed a new catalyst using its proprietary catalyst material structure and precious metal particles that are less than 5 nanometers (nm) in diameter. This is the first time that a catalyst material has been achieved that features single, nanosized precious metal particles embedded in fixed positions. As a result, there is no agglomeration of the precious metal particles, and the amount of high-priced precious metals used in three-way catalytic converters-which purify gasoline-engine exhaust gases-can be reduced by 70 to 90 percent. Moreover, the new catalyst material will maintain the same level of purifying efficiency, with minimal deterioration over time even under the harshest operating conditions. http://www.mazda.com |
