Economic and Ecological Benefits of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Tamil Nadu

The paper has quantified the benefits of SRI over non-SRI practices of rice cultivation in Tamil Nadu. The SRI practices have been found to save inputs substantially and to increase returns. Higher return has been attributed to increase in production as well as substantial reduction in cost of cultivation. The most impressive are the savings in water (22-39 per cent ) and seed (92 per cent). The organic supplementation due to green manuring and weed incorporation, enhanced soil microbial activities and aeration, use of solar energy and time saving due to early transplantation, are some of the uncommon advantages of SRI. The women employment in specialized operations such as transplanting, harvesting and weedings can lead to gender equity. The estimates of technical efficiency using DEAP has clearly shown that SRI is more technical and economic efficient. Upscaling of SRI strategy will help achieve national as well as household food-security.Agricultural and Food Policy,

SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) Economic and Ecological Benefits of Improved production practice for Food Security and Resource Conservation

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceBeing the important ingredient of food basket of the common people, the declining productivity of rice and its per capita availability is a policy concern, which has a global connotation. System of rice intensification (SRI) is a relevant innovation, which increases production, reduces yield gap and ensures the household food security for the vulnerable section of small and marginal farmers. It has also tremendous potential for resource conservation; and important aspect for sustainability. The paper attempts to quantify the benefits of SRI and compare its performances with that of conventional practice of cultivation of rice. The relevant information gathered from the state of Tamil Nadu, which is a fore runner in promotion of SRI in India. The four districts of Tamil Nadu representing distinctive features of irrigation system and 58 farmers are selected for the detailed farm survey. Agriculture is dominated by the small farmers having a tiny farm of average size less than 1.4 ha of over 90% of the farmers. Hence, to produce more food from less land and other inputs for livelihood is a necessity. As a pre-requisite of SRI promotion, the farmers' motivation is gauged in a perception survey, which revealed that most of the farmers were aware of SRI, who have perfected its crucial principles. Estimated indicators of success clearly vindicated that the innovative practice has several socio economic as well as bio-physical benefits, including, increase in productivity, input saving and conservation of precious resources. The return to SRI is reasonably high at Rs.14875 per hectare to Rs. 17629 (equivalent US$309 to US$370) across the districts as compared to corresponding figure of Rs.9263 to Rs.14564 (US$192 to US$ 303) under conventional practices. Higher return is attributed to increase in production as well as substantial reduction in cost of cultivation. The most impressive is the savings in water (22% to 39% saving) and seed (as high as 92% saving) resulted to distinctive benefit-cost ratio. The organic supplementation due to compost, green manure and weed incorporation, enhanced soil microbial activities and aeration, often uncounted, the use of solar energy by the plant and time saving due to early transplantation, are some of the uncommon advantages of SRI. The gains to women labour engaged in specialized operations such as transplanting, harvesting and weeding indicate gender equity. In addition, SRI provides opportunity for employment of the idle family labour in rabi (post monsoon) season. The novelty of SRI is that research is inexpensive as the innovation is farmer based and invariant to crop variety (unlike modern method, variety needs not be new and input intensive technology). The estimated technical efficiency using DEAP also clearly show that SRI is more efficient (both in term of TE and economic efficiency). Therefore, having proven tangible benefits, appropriate strategy for upscaling the adoption is a sine-qua-non to achieve sustainable national as well as household food security. The successful models of SRI need to be integrated for generalization. In the changing scenario, given the general acceptance of the practice and willingness to accept, the needed preparedness for implementation of the policy to scale up the adoption will go a long way

Rice Ecosystems and Factors Affecting Varietal Adoption in Rainfed Coastal Orissa: A Multivariate Probit Analysis

Hydrology, Coastal Orissa, Rice, Probit analysis, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q15, Q16,

An Analysis of Farmers’ Perception and Awareness towards Crop Insurance as a Tool for Risk Management in Tamil Nadu

To insulate farmers against risks in agriculture, government has launched several schemes such as National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and weather index based crop insurance schemes. But their coverage seems to be limited among the farmers primarily due to lack of full information. This paper has reported the results of a survey of 600 farmers conducted to assess their perception about various facets of crop insurance schemes. The Probit and Tobit models have been employed to analyse the factors affecting awareness among the farmers. Crop diversification index has also been used to examine the farmers’ adjustment mechanism against risks. The survey has revealed that most farmers (65%) are aware of risk mitigation measures of the government. But, only half of the farmers have been found aware about the crop insurance schemes/products. This implies that there is need to disseminate information about insurance schemes across the target groups. Further, it has been shown that factors such as gross cropped area, income from other than agricultural sources, presence of risk in farming, number of workers in the farm family, satisfaction with the premium rate and affordability of the insurance premium amount significantly and positively influence the adoption of insurance and premium paid by the farmers. The study has clearly brought out the urgency of developing more innovative products, having minimum human interventions.Crop insurance, Risk management, Crop diversification index, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q14, Q18,

Genome-scale cold stress response regulatory networks in ten Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes

Background Low temperature leads to major crop losses every year. Although several studies have been conducted focusing on diversity of cold tolerance level in multiple phenotypically divergent Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana) ecotypes, genome-scale molecular understanding is still lacking. Results In this study, we report genome-scale transcript response diversity of 10 A. thaliana ecotypes originating from different geographical locations to non-freezing cold stress (10°C). To analyze the transcriptional response diversity, we initially compared transcriptome changes in all 10 ecotypes using Arabidopsis NimbleGen ATH6 microarrays. In total 6061 transcripts were significantly cold regulated (p < 0.01) in 10 ecotypes, including 498 transcription factors and 315 transposable elements. The majority of the transcripts (75%) showed ecotype specific expression pattern. By using sequence data available from Arabidopsis thaliana 1001 genome project, we further investigated sequence polymorphisms in the core cold stress regulon genes. Significant numbers of non-synonymous amino acid changes were observed in the coding region of the CBF regulon genes. Considering the limited knowledge about regulatory interactions between transcription factors and their target genes in the model plant A. thaliana, we have adopted a powerful systems genetics approach- Network Component Analysis (NCA) to construct an in-silico transcriptional regulatory network model during response to cold stress. The resulting regulatory network contained 1,275 nodes and 7,720 connections, with 178 transcription factors and 1,331 target genes. Conclusions A. thaliana ecotypes exhibit considerable variation in transcriptome level responses to non-freezing cold stress treatment. Ecotype specific transcripts and related gene ontology (GO) categories were identified to delineate natural variation of cold stress regulated differential gene expression in the model plant A. thaliana. The predicted regulatory network model was able to identify new ecotype specific transcription factors and their regulatory interactions, which might be crucial for their local geographic adaptation to cold temperature. Additionally, since the approach presented here is general, it could be adapted to study networks regulating biological process in any biological systems

Integrative systems approaches to study plant stress responses

The world’s population is growing at an alarming rate. As of 2010, out of 7 billion people in the world, 925 million are hungry. It represents 13.1 percent of the total world population, or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry (FAO). Climate change is increasingly viewed as a current and future cause of hunger and poverty. In the scenario of global climatic change, different biotic and abiotic stresses are severe threats to the agricultural production worldwide. In nature, plants are continuously stressed by exposure to multiple adverse conditions. The combined effect of multiple biotic and abiotic stresses is a major yield-limiting factor in agriculture. In such a situation, it is of utmost importance to take initiatives for genome scale molecular understanding of stress response mechanisms in plants, so that new stress resistant crop varieties can be developed. Recent developments in omics technologies (metabolomic, proteomic, transcriptomic, phenomics and more) have opened up a new dimension for conducting genome scale molecular studies to understand stress response mechanisms in plants. These studies have led to the revelation of extremely complex and interacting networks of various stress response processes. Statistical, mathematical and informatics driven analysis and integration of the enormous amount of data produced is a challenge. The combination of high throughput profiling techniques, bioinformatics tools and the knowledge of genetics will provide the ways by which to achieve a comprehensive understanding of biological processes related to stress responses in plants. Such knowledge can be translated further to develop better crop varieties. This thesis presents a few such integrated studies, exploring different aspects of plant stress responses at the molecular and systems levels. I believe that the works presented in this thesis will significantly contribute towards a molecular understanding of plant stress response mechanisms at the systems level. The entire thesis has been divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction about the adverse effect of global climatic change on plant productivity due to intensified effects of various stress factors and its negative socioeconomic impact on human society. This chapter also briefly summarises the background of seven research papers presented in this thesis along with a review of contemporary works. Chapter 2 (Paper I) describes why systems biology is useful to study plant stress biology, reviewing various approaches and computational tools available to plant biologists till date. Chapter 3 (Paper II) explores common and stress specific response signatures by the host plant to two different biotic stresses. It provides a comparative understandings of Arabidopsis – Brevicoryne brassicae (aphid) and Arabidopsis –Pseudomonas syringae(bacteria) interactions at the systems level. Chapter 4 (Paper III) uncovers the molecular stress response patterns in plants during the co-occurrence of multiple abiotic and biotic stresses. The main outcome is that transcriptome changes in response to combined stresses could not be predicted from the responses to single stress treatments. This chapter also presents a modular network topology based approach to identify functionally related stress responsive gene modules. Chapter 5 (Paper IV) presents the intraspecific variation in stress response patterns among 10 Arabidopsis ecotypes during cold stress exposure. Using an in silico transcriptional regulatory network model during cellular responses to cold stress in Arabidopsis thaliana, a hypothesis is presented that differentially evolving regulatory networks play a crucial role in climate adaptation of plants. Chapter 6 (Paper V) presents an in silico transcriptional regulatory network model in responses to 11 stresses (5 single and 6 combined) conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana reconstructed from microarray data using a robust algorithm - Network Component Analysis (NCA). Chapter 7 presents two application cases as examples of translational research, how knowledge developed in lab can be used in crop plants. a. (Paper VI) demonstrates how the omics and systems biology approach is useful in improving crop productivity and abiotic stress tolerance in cultivated Fragaria. b. (Paper VII) presents a case study on developing transgenic Brassica napus MINELESS as a new model system to study plant insect interactions. During this study, activation of plant defense in Brassica napus L. cv. Westar and transgenic MINELESS plants after attack by Mamestra brassicae (cabbage moth) were analysed.PhD i biologiPhD in Biolog

Optimizing Urban Infrastructure Resilience Under Precipitation and Population Growth Uncertainties

Increased urbanization, infrastructure degradation, and climate change threaten to overwhelm stromwater systems across the nation, rendering them ineffective. Green Infrastructure (GI) practices are low cost, low regret strategies that can contribute to urban runoff management. However, questions remain as to how to best distribute GI practices through urban watersheds given the precipitation uncertainty and the hydrological responses to them.First, we develop a two-stage stochastic robust programming model to determine the optimal placement of GI practices across a set of candidate locations in a watershed to minimize the total expected runoff under medium-term precipitation uncertainties. We develop a systemic approach to downscale the existing daily precipitation projections into hourly units and efficiently estimate the corresponding hydrological responses. We conduct a case study for an urban watershed in a mid-sized city in the U.S., perform sensitivity analyses and provide insights.Second, we develop a mathematical model to optimally place GI practices when (re-)designing an urban area, subject to uncertainties in population growth and future precipitation. Specifically, we develop a finite-horizon Markov decision process model to determine the extent to which GI practices need to be incorporated in different parts of a given urban area to maximize their benefits, considering the dynamic changes in population density and precipitation. We conduct a case study, perform sensitivity analyses and provide insights.Finally, we consider a problem of scheduling maintenance crew following a storm event to efficiently maintain GI practices across a watershed to mitigate surface runoff due to future events. Specifically, we investigate a condition for which the polyhedron of the flow shop scheduling problem is integer-optimal. This condition is used to construct a column generation algorithm to solve the problem to optimality. The solution approach is boosted with a heuristic that sequentially solves a series of linear programming models to generate a quality initial solution. The solution approach is also integrated with a commercial solver, which results in significant computational savings. Computational experiments show that the developed algorithm can efficiently solve test problems to near-optimality

Children with autism spectrum disorder in the context of Arab countries and cultures

The field of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Arab world is new. The dearth of ASD research in the Arab world is well recognised. There were no data available in the field of ASD in the Arab context collectively. Therefore, ASD researchers should attempt to discover the state of ASD from the Arab perspective. This thesis has attempted to expand our knowledge of the field of ASD in the Arab context, in particular children with ASD and their families. In Chapter 1 an introduction on Arab countries was presented including geography, religion, language, culture, and information about typical family systems. Further, the current state of ASD in Arab countries and cultures was discussed in terms of its diagnosis, prevalence, services available for individuals with ASD, and Arab parents’ stress and needs profiles. Four empirical studies then followed (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5). In the first study (Chapter 2) a systematic scoping review of social, educational, and psychological research on individuals with ASD and their family members in Arab countries and cultures was undertaken, highlighting many unexplored areas for research. Chapter 3 then presented an investigation of support needs of Arab families of children with ASD living in the United Kingdom (UK). Chapter 4 explored experiences of special educators from a special school on using a structured numeracy intervention with their pupils with ASD. The final study (Chapter 5) then carried out an initial evaluation of a structured numeracy intervention with children with ASD in Arab families living in the UK by training and supporting their parents to deliver the intervention at home. In Chapter 6 the findings from the four empirical studies were discussed, along with their implications for practice and future research. Overall this thesis has contributed new knowledge in relation to the field of ASD in the Arab context