Category: Green Products

** Building green bridges

An artist from Karkala is promoting sustainable living, and reviving the culture of areca tree trunk bridges in villages. His philosophy being ‘Keep it natural’.

UDUPI:

The grey gash of a concrete bridge strikes a discordant note in the earthy shades of a rustic setting — a sign of development which stands out like a sore thumb. It’s not meant to be there, says Purushotham Adve, who spent his childhood in Karkala taluk, by streams and rivers running through the Western Ghats. There were no squat ugly bridges in his childhood memories, only natural crossovers built by experienced villagers — often areca tree trunks slung together to form a bridge.

** UAS-B Alumni to impart digital training to urban dwellers

Urban dwellers will get an opportunity to connect with the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru as the UAS-B Alumni Association is organising short-term digital training and specialised talks on a wide range of subjects for people from urban and peri-urban areas.

The Alumni Association, which comprises experts from agriculture and allied sectors, will offer digital training in 22 subjects ranging from balanced nutrition for healthy living to wine-making and from management of indoor plants to Bonsai.

The wide range of subjects for training include importance of medicinal plants, importance of fruits and vegetables in human diet, home made bakery products, maintenance of landscape garden, mushroom cultivation, kitchen garden, bee keeping, gulkan-making and management of pets. Preservation of fruits and vegetables, rat and household pest management, caring of coconut trees in home garden, millets and their uses for a healthy life are also among the subjects.

According to Association President Dr. K. Narayana Gowda, any person can register himself for this course, which is being offered free of cost. The participants will get a certificate from the Association.

They have to register through a Google form (https://forms.gle/cXtQH825ZN11hC1X6) and indicate their subject of preference. The Association will inform them about the training schedule and their meeting ID, he said.

Course directors Dr. P.K. Basavaraj (9449152884) and Dr. Saralakumari (9611567094) can be contacted for clarifications.

Dr. Gowda told The Hindu that the Association had decided to particularly focus on urban dwellers as the university had always been reaching out to farmers through its frontal organisations like Krishi Vigyan Kendras and extensive network of specialists. “But for an occasional workshop or talk on urban gardening, we have not shared our expertise with urban dwellers. However, a large number of urban dwellers too are interested in some of our research subjects. Hence we decided to reach out to them,” he says, while pointing out that specialists in different fields would handle the courses.

In the second phase of the digital training, the Association is thinking of utilising the services of final year students from related subjects in the UAS-B or its graduates to physically reach out to participants in terms of supplying seeds or any other material required.

“For example, if somebody wants to grow mushrooms, we are thinking of getting our students and graduates to supply them at the prescribed or a nominal rate so that urban dwellers can actually benefit from our technologies,” he said.

Interestingly, 58% of persons, who have registered for the courses, have opted for importance of medicinal plants followed by kitchen gardening (52.3%), indoor plants’ maintenance and balanced nutrition for healthy life (both 50.7%). Twenty per cent have opted for management of pets.

** In Karnataka, a silent revolution with bananas

Farming communities in Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka are demonstrating that much more than banana bread — the flavour of the first year of lockdown — can be made with the fruit.

In rain-rich Karnataka, banana cultivation is common but farmers have no control over prices. “Merchants categorise the fruit into first and second quality. It was being bought at ₹4 and ₹5 per kg during the lockdown. The farmers were forced to take back the seconds. When there is a glut, distress sales are common in this region,” says farm educator Shree Padre.

Now, homemakers are helping these farmers by experimenting with banana flour, which can be used for everything from dosas to gulab jamun.

** Unique tamarind tree to fetch ₹9 lakh over next one year

A 40-year-old tamarind tree in Tumakuru district in Karnataka has brought sweet tidings for its grower, though its speciality is very high sour content. The tree, with distinct properties, is set to fetch a revenue of over ₹9 lakh in the course of the next one year, as the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) has identified it for further propagation under revenue sharing model of Tamarind Improvement Project.

The institute has named the tamarind variety after the 66-year-old farmer Lakshmana, who has grown this tree in his farm in Nandihalli of Tumakuru district. The initiative by the institute comes close on the heels of massive response to two such earlier efforts with jackfruit, including a special variety of ‘Siddu jackfruit’.

** World Zoonoses Day: 8 ARV vehicles launched

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) launched a week-long intensive Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV) drive on the occasion of World Zoonoses Day observed on July 6. As part of the initiative, it has committed to vaccinate at least 800 stray dogs every day in the city.

** A golden future for turmeric

For CV Prakash — a former naval officer who is also recognised as an expert in soil-less agriculture — making turmeric (Curcuma longa) more profitable for the ordinary farmer has become a passion during lockdown.

His ongoing Mission Turmeric 2021 aims to begin an “orange revolution”, he says, by teaching people to cultivate the spice in grow bags (large porous containers made of high density polyethelene) packed with coco-peat (made from the pith of the coconut husk) instead of soil, in shade houses.

  • India is the world’s biggest producer of turmeric, (centred in the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and Orissa ). At least 30 varieties of cultivars are grown in the country.

** Feeding poultry with insects, this project solves garbage, agrarian crises

Narendra Pasuparthy, founder and CEO of Nandus Foods, said time is ripe to tackle the twin issues of the animal feed industry that eats into the agricultural sector and the urban food waste affecting cities like Bengaluru. His search for a solution resulted in the start-up Insectifii with Mitali Poovayya, a neurobiology researcher from Amsterdam University. The start-up converts food waste into high-grade protein for poultry using the Black Soldier Fly (BSF).

** Mangaluru: ‘Patrode’ earns place in Ayush list of traditional, beneficial dishes

‘Patrode’, a popular dish of coastal Karnataka and Malnad region that is made from Colocasia (taro) leaves, has been recognized by the union Ayush ministry as a traditional food under Ayush system of medicines.

The ministry has prepared a booklet in which names of 26 food items have been listed. Patrode has occupied a place of pride in this list.

This booklet is also available in the website of the department now. Along with each of the items listed, photos, recipe, and health benefits have been listed.

** India’s first tunnel aquarium opens at KSR railway station

From now on, anyone waiting to board a train, or to receive someone, at the KSR railway station can look forward to an exciting and relaxing activity.

For, a first of its kind aquatic kingdom set up in any railway station in India will be launched in the concourse portion at the entry of the station on Thursday. The joint venture by the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) and HNI Enterprises was planned for an April launch, but the Covid second wave delayed it.