Suchergebnisse

Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is an important source of nutritious food and fodder in the semi-arid tropics and sub-tropics covering over 65 countries. Systematic cowpea breeding programs started in a few countries from 1960 onwards and became further strengthened with the establishment of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 1967 with a world mandate to develop improved cowpea varieties for all regions. Over 40 stress resilient high yielding varieties with erect and semi-erect growth habit and 60 to 75 days maturity have been developed and released in over 45 countries. These varieties yield up to 2.5 t ha–1 grain and fodder with 25% to 30% protein in the grains and 15% to 18% protein in the haulms and fit well as a niche crop in the existing cereal based intensive cropping systems and contribute to soil fertility and thereby enhance system's productivity and sustainability. With rapid adoption of the new improved varieties and improved cropping systems, the world cowpea production has increased from about one million ton in 1974 to over 7 million tons in 2014 – the largest increase among all the pulses. The ongoing research on '60-day' cowpeas as a niche crop in 'wheat-rice' system in Northern India and in the rice fallows in central and southern India, as well as in various niches in the kharif season, has shown a good potential to produce over 10 million tons cowpeas over and above the existing pulses production. This would eliminate the need for importing pulses and bring down the escalating prices. In view of the promising research results and recent release of 5 short duration cowpea varieties, it would be highly appropriate for the Government of India to launch a special research and development project to introduce short duration cowpea in relevant cropping systems throughout India.

This study examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related nationwide lockdown on the Indian economy, particularly on food systems. It also takes up an important issue of millions of migrant workers in India who seem to have suffered the most during this period. The loss of their livelihood, incomes, and food insecurity are captured through a survey of 2917 migrant workers in six different states of India. At the end, the study gives recommendations on how to broaden the support for migrant workers nationwide. [.] To revive the economy and provide support to vulnerable populations, the central government announced a series of packages. These included an additional quantity of subsidised food-grains under the Public Distribution System (PDS), cash transfers through Jan Dhan Yojana, free gas supply under the Ujjwala scheme, an ex-gratia to widow/senior citizen as well as income transfer to farmers under PM-Kisan. Overall, our survey showed 84.7 percent of the migrants had access to subsidised cereals under PDS, while the percentage receiving pulses was much lower at 12 percent during NovemberDecember 2020. Moreover, only 7.7 percent of migrants in their native place reported being engaged in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) or any other public work. The demand-driven skill training under GKRY reached only 1.4 percent of migrants at their native place in our survey. Many workers reported a fall in the quality of food consumed during the lockdown and post-lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown level. With no access to relief measures and entitlements, a quick recovery of the migrant workers seems grim.

Carbide free nano-structured bainitic steels typically have strength more than 2.0 GPa and impact toughness of 7 J or less. Most of this class of steels have sluggish kinetics and takes 16-72 h for complete bainitic transformation. The present work discusses key perspectives in developing carbide free nano-structured bainitic steel having strength more than 2.0 GPa and toughness more than 15 J. Further, ballistic evaluation of newly developed carbide free nano-structured bainitic steels having strength more than 2.0 GPa and high toughness of 20 J was carried out to understand the adaptability of these steels in combat vehicle applications. A comparison is made between newly developed high strength and tough carbide free nano-structured bainitic steels with typical martensite based ARMOX 500 class of armour steels. The developed nano-structured bainite showed ballistic performance much superior to ARMOX 500 steel. Monolithic plates of bainite provide complete protection against 7.62 AP projectiles at an areal density of 120 kgm-2. The ballistic efficiency of monolithic plates was further enhanced by using perforated geometrical configurations.