Fish is a rich and affordable source of good quality protein and other valuable nutrients like poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), vitamins and minerals. Recently there are reports on marketing of fishes added with harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, ammonia etc. Formaldehyde is a toxic aldehyde, listed as cancer causing agent by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and ammonia, although it is not carcinogenic, but continuous ingestion of ammonia can lead to hazardous health issues like injuries to mucous membranes of mouth, throat, esophagus, and stomach. Marketing of adulterated fishes with these chemicals can lead to serious health problems among the fish consumers. As the conventional techniques available for testing these harmful chemicals are time-consuming and erroneous also; so ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology has developed a low-cost, users’ friendly Paper Strip methods for rapid detection of formaldehyde and ammonia in fishes. These detection...

Sikkim,   a hilly state in the Eastern Himalayas, have five climatic zones consisting of lower hill, middle and higher hills, alpine zones and snow bound land. Nearly 82% of the land is forest covered and the unique biodiversity of state is well known throughout the world and covers 0.2% of national geographical area only, however harbours 26% of the country’s total biodiversity that accounts 7–8% of recorded species in the world. In Sikkim, Agriculture and tourism are the main economic activity of the people of Sikkim village society and agriculture is mostly through integrated farming. The pace of agriculture, horticulture and other farming practices are not uniform. Natural climatic conditions, sloping topography of land, narrow strip terrace cultivation, very low per capita land availability are limiting the scope of cultivating any single crop or variety to grow at different slopes. Modern agricultural techniques have opened avenues and scope for promoting high value...

Sugar accumulation in potato tubers is one of the most serious problems for the potato processing industry. Normally, potato tubers are stored at low temperatures (2-4°C) to control sprouting. Storage of potato at low temperatures results in accumulation of reducing sugars (primarily glucose) which leads to “cold-induced sweetening”. Reducing sugars participate in ‘Malliard reaction’ during frying, thus producing dark colored finished product. The suitability of potato tubers for development of processed products such as chips, French fries etc. is mainly determined by the amount of glucose present in potato tubers. In general, glucose levels below 0.1 % (i.e. 1000 ppm) on a fresh weight basis are acceptable for Chips and French fries production. The surrounding conditions mainly temperature has a great impact on the glucose levels accumulation in the potatoes. As per the normal practice in India, farmers transport their potatoes to the processing industry and upon reaching the...

Shri Surjeet Singh, a farmer known for his grassroots innovations, and producing quality seed lives in village Baras, Karnal. He came into contact with ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal during 2013 to get advisory on soil sodicity, and produce quality seed of KRL-210 in farmer’s participatory mode and enhancing his livelihood by developing his own seed network (farmer to farmer market). He has been sowing the CSSRI bred salt tolerant wheat variety KRL-210 since 2013 with remarkable yield (64.55 to 70.75 q/ha) on soils characterized as slightly alkali (pH range of 8.45±0.15). He use to sow the seed of KRL-210 in salt affected soils between first to second week of November with zero or reduced tillage using seed-cum-fertilizer drill. In order to harvest bold grains of KRL-210 (for seed purpose) with enhanced number of tillers, he calibrated his seed-drill to sow KRL-210 variety with lower seed rate of 55 kg/ha at 18 cm row spacing as against the recommended seed...

Onion and garlic are important commercial crops which can improve livelihood of farmers. They also play a crucial role in food and nutritional security of tribals. The tribal belt of Nandurbar in Maharashtra has congenial climatic conditions for production of onion and garlic at commercial level. But cultivation of these crops was limited to the kitchen garden before the initiation of Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) in this area by ICAR- Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Rajgurunagar (ICAR-DOGR). Under TSP, systematic effort was undertaken to improve the area and production of onion and garlic by careful application of improved technologies. Thus, focus was given in conduct of field demonstrations of improved technologies at farmer’s fields through improved seed/bulb distribution, knowledge dissemination, capacity building and entrepreneurship building.  About 550 tribal farmers were selected in the form of 55 groups under this scheme. Each group comprised 10 selected farmers...