SHIVRATRI: THE ORIGIN...

Puranas contain many stories and legends describing the origin of this festival.
According to one, during the samudra manthan, a pot of poison emerged from the ocean. This terrified the Gods and demons as the poison was capable of destroying the entire world, and they ran to Shiva for help. To protect the world from its evil effects, Shiva drank the deathly poison but held it in his throat instead of swallowing it. This made his throat turn blue, and he was given the name Neelakantha, the blue-throated one. Shivaratri is the celebration of this event by which Shiva saved the world.

According to another legend in the Shiva Purana, once the other two of the triads of Hindu Gods, Brahma and Vishnu, were fighting over who was the superior of the two. Horrified at the intensity of the battle, the other gods asked Shiva to intervene. To make them realize the futility of their fight, Shiva assumed the form of a huge column of fire in between Brahma and Vishnu. Awestruck by its magnitude, they decided to find one end each to establish supremacy over the other. Brahma assumed the form of a swan and went upwards and Vishnu as Varaha went into the earth. But light has no limit and though they searched for thousands of miles, neither could find the end. On his journey upwards, Brahma came across a Ketaki flower wafting down slowly. When asked where she had come from, the Ketaki replied that she had been placed at the top of the fiery column as an offering. Unable to find the uppermost limit, Brahma decided to end his search and take the flower as a witness.

At this, the angry Shiva revealed his true form. He punished Brahma for telling a lie, and cursed him that no one would ever pray to him. The Ketaki flower too was banned from being used as an offering for any worship, as she had testified falsely. Since it was on the 14th day in the dark half of the month of Phalguna that Shiva first manifested himself in the form of a Linga, the day is especially auspicious and is celebrated as Mahashivaratri. Worshipping Shiva on this day is believed to bestow one with happiness and prosperity. 

A legend explains the all-night worship of Shiva on Shivratri. There was once a poor tribal man who was great devotee of Shiva. One day he went deep into the forest to collect firewood. However he lost his way and could not return home before nightfall. As darkness fell, he heard the growls of wild animals. Terrified, he climbed onto the nearest tree for shelter till day-break. Perched amongst the branches, he was afraid he would doze and fall off the tree. To stay awake, he decided to pluck a leaf at a time from the tree and drop it, while chanting the name of Shiva. At dawn, he realized that he had dropped a thousand leaves onto a Linga to keep himself awake, the tribal plucked one leaf at a time from the tree and dropped it below which he had not seen in the dark. The tree happened to be a wood apple or bel tree. This unwitting all-night worship pleased Shiva, by whose grace the tribal was rewarded with divine bliss. This story is also recited on Mahashivaratri by devotees on fast. After observing the all-night fast, devotees eat the Prasad offered to Shiva.

There is another possible reason for the origin of the all-night worship. Being a moonless night, people worshipped the god who wears the crescent moon as an adornment in his hair, Shiva. This was probably to ensure that the moon rose the next night.

Immediately after Mahashivaratri, almost like a miracle, the trees are full of flowers as if to announce that after winter, the fertility of the earth has been rejuvenated. And this perhaps is the reason why the Linga is worshipped throughout India as a symbol of fertility. The festivities differ in various parts of India. In southern Karnataka, for example, children are allowed to get into all kinds of mischief and asking for punishment is the rule of the day, probably originating from the mythological incident of Shiva punishing Brahma for lying. TheVishvanatha Temple at Kashi inVaranasi celebrates the Linga (symbolic of the pillar of light) and the manifestation of Shiva as the light of supreme wisdom.

Mahashivaratri is thus not only a ritual but also a cosmic definition of the Hindu universe. It dispels ignorance, emanates the light of knowledge, makes one aware of the universe, ushers in the spring after the cold and dry winter, and invokes the supreme power to take cognizance of the beings that were created by him

Will the 'doomsday' seed vault protect our food supplies?

• Global Seed Vault is located on Svalbard off Norway's northern coast 
• Vault provides a back-up to network of seed banks around the world
• Seeds from  Bulgaria, Colombia, India and Taiwan are been delivered
• Shipments include wheat, barley, maize, chickpea and groundnut
•  It will be vital to ensuring food security in the face of climate change, warns Global Crop Diversity Trust, the organisation which manages the vault

In an effort to ensure global food security, 10,000 new varieties of crops from around the world are being added to the 'doomsday' seed vault in the Arctic.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on an island off Norway's northern coast, already stores 825,000 samples of seeds, which represent 13,000 years of agricultural history.

The vault provides a back-up to the network of seed banks around the world, which store seeds but can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters

10,000 varieties of crops are being added to the 'doomsday' seed vault in the Arctic to protect humanity

 Protecting the diversity of the world's crops is 'fundamental' for ensuring food security in the face of climate change, warned the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), which manages the vault.

A series of deliveries of seeds to Svalbard this month will help in that fight, the GCDT said.

Four shipments from major genebanks based in Bulgaria, Colombia, India and Taiwan are delivering varieties from more than 100 countries.

The shipments include types of wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, peal millet, chickpea, groundnut, Asian and African aubergine.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on an island off Norway's northern coast, already stores 825,000 samples of seeds which represent 13,000 years of agricultural history

The shipments include types of wheat (pictured), barley, corn,  peal millet, chickpea and groundnut

Seeds of a number of indigenous African vegetables, including okra, amaranth, spider plant and jute mallow are also being deposited.

Preserving different food plant varieties will help breed and develop crops that can withstand a changing climate, for example, by being more drought resistant or able to cope with higher temperatures, the trust said.

MILLIONS MAY DIE IF VALUABLE SEEDS ARE DESTROYED IN MIDDLE EAST

Fertile Crescent is an ancient area arcing around the Arabian

 deseart

Violent turmoil in the Middle East could indirectly lead to millions of people starving from food shortages, research suggests.

Scientists have found that the highest concentration of wild crop plants needed to produce new food varieties lie in an area known as the Fertile Crescent.

However, this area is also at the centre of a number of civil wars that are placing valuable crop species at risk of extinction.

The Fertile Crescent is an ancient area of fertile soil arcing around the Arabian desert from Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and ending in Iraq and Iran.

It has the largest diversity of 'crop wild relatives' (CWRs) - species closely related to our crops which are needed to create future 'super crop' varieties.

Given that the human population is set to expand from the 7.26 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050, CWRs will be needed to improve crop yields and feed the extra people.

But researchers at Birmingham have shown that 12 per cent of CWRs are threatened with extinction and all are likely to be already suffering a loss of genetic diversity. 

Marie Haga, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said: 'The Svalbard Global Seed Vault symbolises how we can create a long-term, sustainable and positive solution to feed the world forever.

'The issue of hunger is global, and increasingly urgent. If we continue as we are, food production will be reduced and food prices will rise. Even more people will go hungry.

'Crop diversity is essential if we are to provide more food, more nutritious food and affordable food for the poor.

'Maintaining crop diversity, and the genetic wealth it provides to current and future generations, is beneficial not just to crop breeders, but to the farmers that feed all of us on this planet.'

The GCDT is calling on governments, businesses, foundations and wealthy individuals to contribute to a £500 million ($800 million) endowment fund which will pay to conserve crop varieties in perpetuity.

The seed vault is located in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is situated north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole

COLLEGE ALUMNUS AWARDED PADMASHREE...

Padam Sri Dr. BRAHMA SINGH is an eminent Horticulture Scientist. born on December 15, 1941 at Village Paladi, in Muzaffarnagar, UP, Dr Brahma Singh received B Sc (Hons) Ag & AH and M Sc Ag (Horticulture) degree from GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar and PhD (Hort.) from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1964, 1966 and 1970, respectively. He served as Director, Directorate of Life Sciences, Defence Research and Development Organization, New Delhi; Defence Institute of High Altitude Research, Leh (Ladakh), Defence Research Laboratory, Tezpur (Assam) and Officer on Special Duty (Horticulture), Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi during his 30-year career.

1. Dr Singh is known for greening of Leh (11500ft amsl) and Nubra (near Siachen glacier) valleys by developing and popularizing agro-technologies making production of vegetables under sub-zero conditions and large scale plantation of willow and poplar possible.He pioneered research on protected cultivation in India resulting in vegetable cultivation in Leh and Nubra valleys (earlier considered impossible) by harnessing solar and soil heat in innovative ways. This has led to local farmers being able to meet fresh vegetable requirement of troops boosting the local economy and reducing air transport expenses of food material to Leh besides boosting troop morale.This expertise has led to appointment of Dr Singh as Chairman of Working Group on Protected Cultivation for Haryana, Haryana Kisan Ayog, Hisar. Report of the working group has recently been adopted by Government of Haryana.
2. Dr Singh is known for discovering the potential of sea-buckthorn in Ladakh, an environment friendly bush with an abundance of nutriceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmoceuticals and other health promoting chemicals. Dr Singh helped development of herbal beverage called 'Leh Berry' from sea-buckthorn berries, patented the technology, transferred it to industry promoting establishment of a now flourishing industry resulting in a substantial income to tribal farmers, herbal health drinks to Siachen troops and foreign exchange to the country through export of sea-buckthorn seeds and pulp.
3. Dr Singh established the first herbal garden at Leh. This led to establishment of herbal gardens (under guidance and supervision of Dr Singh) at Rashtrapati Bhawan which in turn inspired herbal gardens around the country and boosted education on using herbs for maintenance of health. At Rashtrapati Bhawan he authored two books namely Trees of Rashtrapati Bhawan and Roses of Rashtrapati Bhawan in 2007. Earlier in his career, he contributed in the development of space food for first Indo-Russian space mission and six new varieties of vegetable crops being cultivated in high altitudes. Zanskar ponies were inducted in the Indian Army due to persistent advocacy by Dr Singh who believed local breeds would outperform imported ones. This induction paid dividends in Kargil war.
4. He is a fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India, National Academy of Biological Sciences, India, Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India), Indian Society of Vegetable Sciences and Horticulture Society of India. He is President of Indian Society for Protected Cultivation, New Delhi and Society for New Age Herbals, New Delhi. Dr Singh has to his credit four patents, six books, 6o research papers in National & International Journals of repute, 7 book chapters and 6 technical bulletins.
5. He was awarded GB Pant University Merit,1964; Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshmitra Award, 1995, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Govt. of India; Academy of Plant Sciences International Plant Scientist Award 2002; Life Time Achievement Award of Agriculture Alumni Association, Pantnagar, 2012; and Shivshakti Life Time Achievement Award 2013 of Horticulture Society of India.

Dr Brahma Singh is KNOWN FOR-

• Greening Leh Valley;
• Identifying and popularizing new fruit crop in India- THE SEABUKTHORN-storehouse of nutrition and medicines;
• Pioneering research on protected cultivation
• Development of herbal gardens at Leh and Rashtrapati Bhawan
• Development of vegetable varieties for high altitudes
• True Potato seed production in Leh valley
• Establishment of agriculture research stations (Pithoragrah, Tawang, and Partapur-near Siachen glacier) in high altitudes of Himalaya
• Animal production (poultry, dairy, goat, sheep) technologies in cold deserts of India
• Introduction of Jhanskar pony in Army at Ladakh
• Developing Self sustaining village "NANG" at height of 13500 ft above sea level.
• Giving idea of establishing permafrost facility at Changthang-2nd in world
• Highlighting hottest Chilli in world from Assam- a new species Capsicum assamensis.
• Documenting Flora of Ladakh and its potentials
• Breeding root knot nematode resistant tomato varieties
• Teaching Vegetable crops as assistant professor, HAU, Hisar in early seventies.
•                                                                                                        SOURCE: apiv.in

HARITIMA ''A magazine to put forward the vibrant ideas of younger generation"

The Pride of Agrarians

                                          " HARITIMA"

                                THE COLLEGE MAGAZINE 

College of Agriculture invites vibrant entries for college magazine "Haritima" including ideas for

• Central Theme
• Articles
• Poems
• Sketch

Submit your entries as soon as possible to Agripantnagars.u@gmail.com

The Best entries would be published in college magazine.

Do Participate,and give your inputs

Agriculture in deep crisis, food security in danger

India may face a severe food shortage. Agriculture is in acute crisis. Farmers are quitting for becoming labourers in cities. Rural migration is taking menacing proportion. Neglect of agriculture for decades and considering it to be a burden by economists is taking a toll on the economy itself.
Agriculture is nowhere in the economic radar of the past many five-year plans. Prime minister Narendra Modi has said that the country planned for 4 per cent growth each year and settles for 2 to 2.5 per cent. Nobody has tried to correct it.
The latest National Sample Survey (NSSO) survey has exposed the lopsided development of the country. It points out that about 58 per cent of the farmers starve every day. It says they get no more than one meal a day. 
The NSSO findings present appalling picture that the farm sector has become a losing proposition for most farmers. Farmers are forced to leave it, sell their land and look for alternative by migrating to the cities.
It is not surprising. In 1996, World Bank (WB) had predicted the dismal picture. It had estimated that in the next 20 years – till 2015 – rural migration to the cities would be about 20 crore, equal to the combined population of France, Britain and Germany.
The WB is not giving a solution to improve farm conditions. It somewhere endorses it. In 2008, its World Development Report pressed for land acquisition and said that for improving the skills of the rural youth, training centres should be set up all over the country so that they could become industrial labourers, something the nation is talking now. 
The WB design is simple. It wants to provide cheap labour to the world corporate at the cost of Indian agriculture. Surprisingly, even RBI governor Raghuram Rajan endorsed the view. He had said that India would progress if we could take people out of agriculture and to the cities.
This is a pernicious mindset. The official figures state that 54 to 58 per cent of the population, over 70 crore, are still employed in the farm sector. The latest NSSO figures say that of the 15.61 crore rural households (about 75 crore people) 57 per cent are dependent on agriculture. Since the 1991 Manmohanomics, the country leaps from one to the other crisis. 
In mid-1990s, the “progressive” economists had been saying that India need not produce food grain. It could take to cash crops, earn dollars and import food grain. Now there are the new generation of economists some are supposed experts in foreign trade, who say that India should buy large patches of land in Africa, produce food grain there and bring it back (import). 
The land should be utilised for industrial purposes to give the GDP a boost.
The mindset has harmed the entire economy and agriculture in particular. The farmers are not only starving but also are forced to move out of the fields. The 2011 census figures reveal that every day at least 2400 farmers are migrating to cities. The estimated migration figures touch 50 lakh a year. 
In addition, about 3 lakh farmers have committed suicide during the past 17 years. Many of them were unable to repay a loan of as low as Rs 50,000. 
About 42 per cent others are willing to leave farming if they get a better employment. 
How improperly the farmer has been dealt with is evident from the growing numbers of farmers turning into MNREGA job card labourers. The NSSO says that 40 per cent of farmers constitute this force. 
Even landholding is becoming smaller. Over 70 per cent farmers have less than a hectare of land. Quite often for the marriage of children or to meet other needs a part of the land is sold out. 
According to the NSSO survey, a five-member farm family earns Rs 3078 from sale of farm products, Rs 765 from dairy-related activities. If Rs 2069 earned from MREGA or other labour-related activities and Rs 514 from non-farm activities are added, they have total household income of Rs 6426. It means not more than 60 per cent of a farm family income comes from the core farm activity.
This is so after 45 years of green revolution. If funds spent on R&D do not yield result, it calls for introspection.
It is also a fact that public investment in agriculture has been abysmal. The 11th Plan allocated Rs 1 lakh crore and the 12th Plan 1.5 lakh crore for agriculture. In 2014-15, the farm sector employing about 58 core people was allocated a mere Rs 24,000 crore. In contrast, the incentives paid to corporate were a few lakh crore. (This is apart from the figure of tax forgone stated in the budget papers).
There is another contrast. The incentives benefit each corporate house. The government farm allocations do not make the farmer richer by even a rupee. Virtually agriculture does not get any public funding. The only aspect that is said to be taken care of by public funding is the minimum support price (MSP). During the past three years wheat and rice MSP have increased by about Rs 50 a quintal a year.
This is not even neutralising the inflationary pressures on the farmer. His seed, fertiliser and all other input costs have increased manifold. 
Instead suggestions have been given for abolition of MSP and even stoppage of government purchases. The critics of MSP want it removed, to reduce an annual food purchase bill of about Rs 26,000 crore. Even developed countries like the US, Canada, and European nations continue subsidising farmers, despite WTO negotiations. In India, we do not have any subsidy for the farming class.
Even the Agriculture Prices Commission has echoed this. None of them say that the MSP benefits mere 8 per cent of those employed in farm activities. 
The rest of the 98 per cent are directly dependent on the market forces that includes large exploitative corporate. The MSP benefits Punjab farmers but it does not benefit those in Bihar. If MSP is abolished, Punjab farmers may face the distress of those in Bihar. The latest sermon of the food ministry to states to stop payment of additional bonus of over MSP is a step to add to the woes of the farmers.
If Indian economy has to make strides it cannot do so hiving off agriculture, ignoring the needs of rural labour markets and the dynamics that add growth to the economy. 

Why the EU lifted its ban on Indian mangoes, but left out the humble brinjal and karela..

 
After nearly nine months of persistent persuasion by India, the European Union finally lifted its ban on the import of Indian mangoes recently.

The EU had imposed the ban on May 1, 2014, after EU’s trade authorities in Brussels found 207 consignments of Indian fruits and vegetables to be infested with fruit flies – pests that are native to Indian soil but that could infest and damage European crops.

Along with the famous Alphonso and other Indian mangoes, the ban stalled Indian exports of four vegetables: bitter gourd (karela), eggplant (brinjal), taro plant (arbi) and snake gourd (chichinda).

The ban was supposed to last until December 2015, but various agencies under the government of India have been working hard to meet the EU’s import requirements and have the ban revoked much earlier. The efforts, however, have borne fruit only in the case of the mango, perhaps India’s most famous food export.

While mango traders can expect a profitable season in 2015, what of the less-glamorous gourds, taro and eggplant that continue to be banned in Europe? Have they been left out by the mango lobby?

How mangoes won the race

Because of the presence of fruit flies in the mangoes and vegetables from India, EU authorities claimed early in 2014 that India’s export certification mechanism was not up to the mark.

“They wanted to know what we were doing to set this right, and the Indian government pledged that all food exports would be sent from APEDA-recognised pack houses,” said Vinod Kaul, former deputy general manager at the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, a trade body under the central government’s ministry of agriculture.

Working overtime to modify its certification mechanisms according to European guidelines, APEDA and the central government pushed for the EU to send an inspection team to audit Indian packing houses in 2014 itself. In September, says Kaul, the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office finally sent a team of officials for an exhaustive audit of packing houses across India.

“Mangoes were not even in season when the team visited India, but they were eventually satisfied with our export certification mechanism for bigger fruits and vegetables like mangoes,” said Kaul.

When the ban was lifted about a month ago, however, the four banned vegetables remained on EU’s taboo list.

Goan connection?

India exports at least 4,000 tonnes of mangoes every year, and the volume of vegetables exported is not very different, says APEDA chairman Santosh Sarangi. “Perhaps the EU decided to start the ban-lifting with mangoes because it is the most visible item India exports to countries like the UK or Germany,” said Sarangi.

Kaul and other trade experts believe mangoes were prioritised largely because of persistent lobbying by a strong industry of traders both in India and in Europe, and the particular efforts of Indian-origin British parliamentarian Keith Vaz.

Soon after the plan to ban Indian imports was announced in March, Vaz sent British Prime Minister David Cameron a boxful of Alphonso mangoes as an early effort to push the United Kingdom to oppose the ban. In May, he launched a ‘Reverse the Mango Ban’ campaign to bring other parliamentarians on board and has referred to mangoes as “symbolic of India”.

“Maybe because his roots are in Maharashtra, Vaz chose to lobby for mangoes more than the vegetables,” said Kaul. (Vaz’s roots are actually in Goa, which is part of the Konkan belt that produces Alphonso mangoes.)

Vegetables will have their day

In India, too, experts believe it is easier for mango exporters to push their agendas through compared with disparate vegetable growers.

“There is one unified industry for mango trade in India, so it is comparatively easy for them to demand change,” said Rafiq Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. “In the case of vegetables, there are different bodies for different varieties so it is not easy for them to organise themselves.”

Despite this, officials at APEDA and FIEO claim that on its part, India has made equal efforts to work towards the lifting of the export bans of both mangoes and vegetables.

PLANTS TO COMBAT INDOOR POLLUTION

Everyday when we return home after a gruelling routine, we think that now we are safe from the grime and dust outside. But can we be so sure? Actually the air inside our home is much more polluted than we can imagine.

Indoor air pollution (IAP) has been ranked as the fourth most crucial environmental problem prevailing today by the US Environmental Protection Agency. It could result due to the presence of physical, chemical and biological contaminants in the air of a confined environment. Almost 75% of the carcinogens also come from indoors. A pollutant, released indoors, is thousand times more likely to reach and affect people’s lungs than a pollutant released outside.

The main sources of IAP are gases emitted from combustion, tobacco smoke, aerosol sprays, solvents, glues, cleaning agents, paints, insect repellents, air fresheners etc. Concentrations of air pollutants, especially the fine particulate matter, are well above the recommended World Health Organisation (WHO) levels. The signs of indoor air problems are unusual and noticeable odours, stale and stuffy air, excessive humidity, presence of moulds etc. The major effects on human health are respiratory tract infection, skin irritation, cardiovascular effects, malfunctioning of gastro-intestinal tract etc.

But there is a help at hand from several indoor ornamental plants that can suck away the harmful elements that contaminate the indoor air. Plants are the lungs of the earth. Indoor plants can perform essential and vital functions in our home or office with the same efficiency as they do in a forest in our biosphere. They cleanse the air and neutralise pollutants. Common indoor plants that can be used for this purpose are:

·       Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)

·       Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifritzii)

·       Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)

·       Chrysanthemum

·       Good luck plant (Cordyline terminalis)

·       Mass cane/corn plant (Dracaena massangeana)

·       Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)

·       Boston fern (Nepherolepis spp.)

·       Heart leaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium)

·       Peace lily (Spathiphyllum spp.)

Potted plants slowly degrade the toxic substances in the indoor air. So, we should find out more about various useful plant species to combat this serious problem of indoor pollution.

-        Barkha , 3^rd year