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Now British scientists have discovered a way of increasing growth rate of many staple vegetables using a naturally occurring plant protein that regulates cell division. more info...
Opening of a Rs.40 crore National Agricultural Science Centre as part of the inauguration of the 88th session of the Indian Science Congress, which is held on 3rd Jan. The new centre would house a museum and a modern library, and play host to the National Academy of agricultural scientists, and scientists, and several agriculture related scientific societies. While the museum would be of interest to the common man, exhibiting the results of the research conducted by agricultural institutions, the library would be useful to scientists, as it would strive to be a one-stop storehouse of information. The opening of the centre augured well for the academy of agricultural sciences, which is the youngest among the scientific academies in the country, as it would help in its proper growth. Efforts were under way to improve the finances of the academy, reduce its dependence on government support and make it more autonomous and independent. The corpus fund had reached Rs.3.5 crores and the expectation was that it would cross Rs.5 crores by year end. |
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Black Rice New strains of black rice with high level of protein and minerals have developed by Thai researches. Researchers from biotech centres and Kasetsart University used the technique of adjustment of molecules in rice chromosomes, rather than genetically modified organism method to develop the new rice strain. Black rice contains more protein than meat with high level of minerals. The commercial production of the new rice strain, dubbed khao chao hom nil or black jasmine rice will begin shortly. |
Agri-Scientists |
Young Agronomist Award for Dr. Shivaramu Indian Society of Agronomy (IARI) has conferred the Dr.P.S.Deshmukh Young Agronomist Award for 1997 to Dr. H.S Shivaramu in recognition of his research on the new concepts of Crop Canopy Architecture, Land soil and soil requirements of many field crops, and land use planning based on the watershed approach. Dr. Shivaramu is an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences and an advisor to the research board of the American Biographic Institute. |
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| Millenium World Food Prize to Indian Scientist An Indian Plant Geneticist, Dr. Surinder K. Vasal, and a Mexican biochemist, Dr. Evangelina Vilegas, have been awarded the millennium World Food Prize for developing a high yielding protein-rich corn. The new corn is known as quality protein maize and looks and tastes like the normal maize. There is however, one vital difference is that it contains twice the amount of Lysine, Tryptophan, amino acids essential for human health and nutrition. |