Friday 15 February 2013

Safe Foods Copy Telugu



ఆహరం సరియైనది కానప్పుడు ఔషధం వాడినా ప్రయోజనం ఉండదు  
ఆహరం సరియైనది  అయినప్పుడు ఔషధం యొక్క అవసరం ఉండదు 
                                                                - ఆయుర్వేద సూక్తి 

మన ఆహారపు అలవాట్లు మన ఆరోగ్యాన్నే కాక పర్యావరణాన్ని సైతం ప్రభావితం చేస్తాయి. తరాలు  మారుతున్న కొద్దీ మనందరి ఆరోగ్యం క్షీణించడం మనం చూస్తున్నాము. ఇందుకు గత కొన్ని ఏళ్ళలో మన ఆహారంలో వచ్చిన మార్పులే ప్రధాన కారణం . నేడు ఆహరం రసాయనిక క్రిమిసంహారకాలు మరియు ఎరువులతో నిండి ఉంది. రైతన్నలు సైతం అధిక దిగుబడుల కోసం రసాయనిక పద్ధతుల వైపే మొగ్గు చూపుతున్నారు. 

ఇలా అధికంగా రసాయినిక పద్ధతులు ఉపయోగించడం వల్ల మన ఆరోగ్యనికి మరియు పర్యావరణానికి హాని  చేకూరుతున్నది. ఈ మధ్య కాలంలో పెరుగుతున్న గుండె జబ్బులకు మరియు పక్షవాత వ్యాధులకు, మన ఆహారంలో నిమిడీకృతమైన రసాయనాలే కారణమని శాస్త్రవేత్తలు విశ్వసిస్తున్నారు. కొన్ని క్రిమిసంహారకాలు ప్రాణాధార అవయవాలలో సమస్యలకు కారణం అవ్వడమే కాక ప్రాణాంతకమైన క్యాన్సర్ వ్యాధికి సైతం కారణం అవుతున్నాయి. 

ఇటువంటి విషపూరితమైన రసాయనాలు  కలిగి ఉన్న ఆహారం నుండి మనల్ని కాపాడుకోవడానికి చేస్తున్నఒక  ప్రయత్నమే ఈ పెరిగ్రీన్ సేఫ్ ఫుడ్స్ 


పెరిగ్రీన్ సేఫ్ ఫుడ్స్ యొక్క విశిష్ఠతలు: 
  1. పెరిగ్రీన్ సేఫ్ ఫుడ్స్ యొక్క  పండ్లు మరియు కూరగాయలు నైపుణ్యత కల మరియు  అనుభవజ్ఞులైన శాస్త్రవేత్తల పర్యవేక్షణలో పండించబడుతున్నాయి 
  2. మా ఉత్పత్తులు ఆరోగ్యవంతమైన నేలలో, మంచి సాగునీటిని ఉపయోగించి, సుస్థిర వ్యవసాయ పద్ధతులను పాటించి పండించబడుతున్నాయి 
  3. పర్యావరణానికి కానీ మనుషుల ఆరోగ్యానికి కానీ ఎటువంటి హాని కలిగించని క్రిమిసంహారకాలను ఉపయోగించి మా ఉత్పత్తులు పండించబడుతున్నాయి
  4. మేము మా తోటల పోషణలో సేంద్రియ ఎరువులు, గోఆధారిత ఉపయుక్తములు మరియు వేప ఎరువులు ఉపయోగిస్తున్నాము
  5. క్రిమిసంహారక అవశేషాలు లేని సురక్షితమైన, నాణ్యమైన, పరిపుష్టి కలిగిన పండ్లు మరియు కూరగాయలను సరసమైన ధరలకు మీ ఇంటి ముంగిట్లో అందించడానికి పెరిగ్రీన్ సేఫ్ ఫుడ్స్ కృషి చేస్తన్నది 
  6. పెరిగ్రీన్  సేఫ్ ఫుడ్స్ పండ్లు మరియు కూరగాయలను చక్కటి పరిపక్వతకు వచ్చిన తరువాత మాత్రమే కోసి, నాణ్యమైన వాటినే ఎంపిక చేసి, వాటిని జాగ్రత్తగా రవాణా చేసి మీ అవసరాలకు అనుకూలంగా బుట్టలలో అమర్చి తోట నుండి నేరుగా మీ ముంగిట చేరవేస్తుంది

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Cuban Inventor Turns Trash Into Farm Tools


A solitary man trudges through a palm-lined corn field in the Cuban countryside, pulling behind him a rickety contraption that President Raul Castro would love.



The man, Yolando Perez Baez, is showing off his latest invention, a spindly, spider-like piece of equipment that sprays pesticide along six rows of crops, instead of the one row he could dose using his usual backpack fumigator.

With the backpack, Perez says he would have to walk five miles and take six hours to finish the field. The new equipment allows him to do it in one hour and walk less than a mile.

In other words, it fits right in with Castro's quest to cut budget-draining food imports by making Cuban agriculture more efficient and productive.

More than five decades of revolution, and the necessity and isolation that have accompanied it, have made Cubans both skilled at improvisation and a little eccentric, none more so than Perez, 47.

Using parts scrounged from local trash dumps he jokingly calls his "warehouse," Perez has pieced together primitive equipment to spray pesticides, start balky irrigation machinery and speed the harvest of potatoes.

He even wears a hat of his own creation that protects his face from the sun, but looks like a cross between a Chinese peasant hat and something a space alien would wear.

These are not high-tech creations, but, like much else in Cuba, simple and functional, rooted in common sense and the need to make do with what is available. They do not eliminate the back-breaking manual labor that dominates Cuban farm life, but reduce it.

His motor starter is a study in elegant simplicity and addresses a serious need in a country where major equipment tends to be antiquated and often in need of parts that are costly and hard to get.

BROKEN MOTORS

"Eighty percent of the motors here, in this municipality at least, don't have batteries, don't have starters. It's the first thing to break and you have to buy them in hard currency, which is very difficult," Perez said.

So, Perez, an agronomist engineer who wears the stained work clothes of a man that spends a lot of time in the workshop, developed what looks like a small oil rig equipped with a heavy weight.

The weight, tied to a rope that is wrapped around the engine crankshaft, is lifted up by the rig and dropped. The fall pulls the rope and cranks the engine to life.

He has sold eight of the apparatuses for the equivalent of just over $100 each.

One of his customers, Jorge Suarez, praised the machine after it started a massive diesel engine for his irrigation system. As water poured out of a pipe into his cabbage field, he said, "If we don't invent what we invent, then we would be in bad shape. Look, if this man doesn't invent this, I don't know (what we would do)."

Necessity is said to be the mother of invention, but Perez said it was something slightly different.

"The main thing is to be faced with the problem," he said.

Perez works at the "First of May" agricultural cooperative in Guira de Melena, which is about 35 miles west of Havana.

Under reforms by Castro, farmers are making good money, said coop president Jose Miguel Gonzalez said, but only spend it on new equipment when they are convinced it works. The jury was still out on Perez' new fumigator, he said.

Not to worry, said Perez. He has other machines in the works, including a revolving sprinkler system, and, in the end, each invention is just another small step toward a better Cuba.

With "a little that I put here, and another little bit that another Cuban puts there, the economy grows," he said. "The small things have to be noted because sometimes they appear insignificant, but together they are a lot."

Friday 2 November 2012

Golden Harvest Vegetables For Health


Yellow and orange are some of the colors of autumn. They are also seen in the colors of the fall harvest in the form of pumpkin, winter squash, carrots and sweet potato. These delicious additions to your diet not only provide a wide range of nutritional benefits, but are an example of being able to eat seasonally and locally. Another plus is that they can be stored without refrigeration for long periods of time.



When it comes to nutrition, these vegetables have a lot in common. Because of their orange color, they are full of beta carotene. This nutrient has health benefits of its own, but can turn into vitamin A as needed by the body. These nutrients are important for eye and skin health, as well as for many other body tissues. They also play a role in the immune system.

Orange vegetables contain many other antioxidants, such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and alpha carotene that help protect the body from free radicals (a cause of tissue damage). These and other nutrients found in the orange vegetables fall under the heading of "phytonutrients" —— nutrients found in plant foods that contribute to optimal health that we are just beginning to learn about.

The antioxidants in these vegetables have the potential to benefit health conditions such as reduced risk of some cancers. They are important for growth, development and health in babies and children/teens. For adults, they contribute to overall health and reduced risk of tissue breakdown.

Vitamin C, K, E and several B vitamins are also found in orange vegetables, as are many minerals — potassium, iron, magnesium, manganese and copper. These nutrients have many jobs in the body.

When it comes to blood pressure, current guidelines recommend reducing our intake of sodium, while consuming more potassium. The orange vegetables are especially high in potassium.

These vegetables are great sources of fiber, as well. Higher fiber intakes can help lower cholesterol numbers and assist with blood pressure and blood sugar regulation. Fiber can also help with weight control because it adds bulk at a meal, meaning we feel fuller and overall may eat less. It also slows digestion so the fuel from a meal or snack lasts longer and we may feel the need to eat less often.

The soluble fiber found in these foods appears to be better tolerated by persons with irritable bowel syndrome as compared to the rougher fibers. It can also be helpful for persons with constipation issues.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 recommends that adults consume four to seven cups of orange vegetables a week (depending on the total amount of calories consumed). With regard to the new "My Plate" that has replaced the Food Pyramid, including more of these vegetables can help you to reach the goal of making half your plate veggies. Think back about your food intake this past week. How did you do with these nutrient-packed colorful vegetables?

If you are a little behind in achieving the recommendations, browse through the produce section this week and choose a few of these golden veggies to take home. Numerous recipes are available online. Because of their sweet (and in some cases nutty) flavor, they blend well with both sweet and savory foods.

All can be baked or steamed — whole, bite-sized, or mashed. Bite-sized pieces can be tossed with a little olive oil (maybe with a sprinkle of minced fresh herbs or other seasoning) and roasted in the oven until tender.

With the colder weather, they are a sweet and hearty addition to soups, stews, and chili. Roasting them before adding them to a soup adds even more flavor. They pair well with fruit like apples in a soup or add a contrast to the hot spices — cumin, chili powder or curry — in savory dishes.

Try simmering cubes of butternut squash and carrots with water, diced tomatoes, onions, coriander, cumin, turmeric, ground ginger, and a dash of cayenne pepper in a covered pot and cook until tender. Then serve over cooked quinoa or brown rice and sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro.

Add some pureed pumpkin or orange squash to chowder for added nutrients and a nice golden color. Slip some into a muffin batter, pancake or waffle batter, or yeast dough bread. Spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves can be added as well. Another option is to add pureed carrot, squash or pumpkin to tomato sauce and serve over whole grain pasta.

Pureed pumpkin or squash added to low-fat ricotta cheese and a dash of nutmeg makes a great filling for ravioli. Cooked squash can be added to a veggie lasagna, too.

Grated carrot can be added to muffins or other quick breads. It can be added to cooked grains like rice, for a dash of color. It can also add nutrients and moisture when used to make burgers or meatloaf.

For dessert, try a pumpkin or winter squash custard — like pumpkin pie without the crust. This provides the nutrients from the orange vegetables and milk while cutting down on the fat and calories. Try using low fat milk or low fat evaporated milk and reduce the sugar to save even more calories. A pumpkin cheesecake is another seasonal dessert that can be made with fat-free cream cheese and less sugar to lower the calorie count.

So do yourself a favor and take advantage of the delicious, colorful, and nutritious orange autumn vegetables.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

ND, MN Farmers Develop Farming App


Two farmers have developed a mobile phone application to help with farm management.



Jacob Fannik grew up on a 2,000-acre farm in Max, planting small grains such as oats and barley. When his friend, Ryan Raguse of Wheaton, Minn., approached him with the idea for Virtual Farm Manager, he knew from experience it would be useful for producers.

“The spark behind this came from growing up on a farm,” Fannik said. “A farmer has to get in and out of the tractor, get into the house, make a bunch of calls, be so many places at once and still be behind the wheel of the tractor.”

Farmers can download the app to their phone and then register on the company’s website, www.virtualfarmmanager.com.

The app uses the phone’s GPS to track and map as equipment goes up and down the fields planting or spreading fertilizer. Everything on the phone is synced with their web account.

With the app, farmers also can store past yield records and compare them. They can keep notes. If there are multiple workers in the field, they can all view it on their cell phone at the same time.

“Rather than running around with notebooks all the time, the farmer can just send it back to the computer,” Raguse said.

“I have cattle to deal with and I’m farming from about March to October,” Fannik said. “I definitely understand what it’s like to be out there at 6:30 in the morning until 1 o’clock.”

Raguse said there are many variations of this management technology but he doesn’t know of any that allow farmers to access it on a cell phone.

The app will be coming out for Android phones on April 15. An iPhone version will follow shortly after. The cost for the first month is $1; after that, it is $65 a month.

“Farmers can do a lot of what the high tech, high dollar products do on a smart phone,” Fannik said.

Raguse said other systems such as Connected Farm require spending several thousand dollars on hardware and software on top of a monthly subscription cost. Other management software is available for computers he said, but it doesn’t offer the mobility of a phone.

Fannik said farmers might face some reception problems with this product. Also the technology may not be as good as what the other products offer, but he said they think what they have is sufficient. As their company grows, Raguse and Fannik hope to be able to provide more and better services.

“We’re here to help farmers first and foremost,” Fannik said. “Without farmers out there, you’re not getting food on the table, not getting milk in your glass.”

Friday 26 October 2012

Drip Irrigation Offers Huge Savings For Farmers


Three researchers from Batac in Ilocos Norte are developing the low-cost drip irrigation system (LDIS) for rice-based high-value crops such as bitter gourd to meet irrigation requirements in dry environments.



Known for its dry environment, water is a scarce resource in Batac. The periodic rains from June to November are hardly enough to irrigate the crops planted in the province so Engr. Noel Ganotisi, Engr. Romel Batuac, and Dr. Reynaldo Castro of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

The LDIS uses plastic drum, control valves, filter, mainline and manifold, and lateral lines (moldex hose). It was first used by the team to irrigate a 250-square-meter plot of bitter gourd at a PhilRice station in Batac for the first six months of 2010.

Except for the dripper, all materials are locally available in Batac and elsewhere in the country so anyone could replicate the technology, Ganotisi said.

Ganotisi likewise highlighted that LDIS only costs P30,000, which is up to 72 percent cheaper than commercial irrigation dripping system for a 1,000-square-meter plot.

Ganotisi also reported they were able to save 55 percent of water using LDIS. This amount of water can irrigate other crops, something that could have just been wasted if conventional furrow irrigation was used.

“It’s indeed very efficient. This can be explained by the fact that water was applied “at the root zone of the bitter gourd,” Ganotisi said.

This way, less water is applied “unlike in furrow irrigation where wider area is irrigated since more water is needed to run in furrows. Even those spaces that do not need to be wetted are irrigated when using furrow method.”

Consequently, the team reported that LDIS-irrigated bitter gourd produced slightly higher marketable fruits (78.62 percent) than those irrigated using conventional furrow irrigation (77.02 percent). Additionally, a return on investment of 85 percent over a one year period was reported.
After the station pilot testing, the team started the on-site trial in Currimao, a town in Ilocos Norte.

“This is user-friendly for women and for aging farmers. Once the containers are filled, I only need to turn on and off the drippers and all’s done. I can now focus on my other tasks,” said Agnes Asuncion, who also makes soaps after attending a course from the Department of Science and Technology.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Now, Farmers Can Check Water-Level In Soil


To help farmer reduce consumption of water, a scientist from Sugarcane Breeding Institute in the city has developed a soil moisture indicator to help farmers understand the moisture level of the soil and irrigate accordingly.



K Hari, a senior scientist at the institute, invented the device, which was tested for around a year among sugarcane farmers. "This can be immersed into the soil. By pressing the side button, the water levels can be understood. Different colours will represent the water levels; such as blue for adequate water and red for less water," he added.

According to the scientists, farmers can decide on when to irrigate looking at the indicators. D Puthira Prathap, who was the principal investigator of the project, says that "The indicator can be taken to different areas of the land and the moisture levels can be checked. The soil need not be irrigated, if there is enough water."

Farmers who used the equipment in Erode, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri shared their experiences in the sensitisation workshop organised as part of "Water Day" celebrations in the institute.

EK Subramanian, a farmer from Koothampoondi in Erode said he used the soil moisture indicator in half of his farm and found it beneficial. "I have one hectare of sugarcane cultivation. In half the land, I used this equipment to compare with the normal process of irrigation. I placed the indicator in several locations of the land to understand the availability of water. In the other portion of the land, we irrigated as usual. Using the indicator, I could manage with 20% less water. The land which used this equipment cultivated 8 tonnes more than the other portion," he said.

"I could reduce about 30% to 40% water consumption in the areas where I used the equipment compared to the land where I did not use it. The harvest was ten tonnes more," said P Saravanan, a farmer from Palacode in Dharmapuri district.

N Vijayan Nair, director of the institute said "Indian farmers use more water for agriculture. The usual reason is that we don't know when the soil requires to be irrigated. This leads to over irrigation which damages the soil."

The soil moisture indicator can check water-levels of the soil from around 15cms to 45cms. Hari says that this is enough for farms and plants in pots. "This is simple to use and affordable. We are looking for entrepreneurs interested in manufacturing this on a large scale," he added.

Friday 19 October 2012

Could Vertical Farming Be The Future?


Farm capable of feeding 50,000 people could fit 'within a city block'

Rice on the seventh floor. Wheat on the twelfth. And enough food within an 18-story tower to feed a small city of 50,000.

Vertical farms, where staple crops could be grown in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, exist today only in futuristic designs and on optimistic Web sites. Despite concerns over sky-high costs, however, an environmental health expert in New York is convinced the world has the know-how to make the concept a reality — and the imperative to do so quickly.



With a raft of studies suggesting farmers will be hard-pressed to feed the extra 3 billion people swelling the world’s ranks by the year 2050, Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier believes a new model of agriculture is vital to avoid an impending catastrophe.

“The reason why we need vertical farming is that horizontal farming is failing,” he said. If current practices don’t change by mid-century, he points outs, an area bigger than Brazil would need to become farmland just to keep pace with the demand.

Working the soil has always been an uncertain venture, and Despommier argues that the price of crop failure is growing ever steeper as the global population mushrooms. “The world,” he said, “is running out of resources faster than what it can replace.”

Critics like Bruce Bugbee, a professor of crop physiology at Utah State University in Logan, see improvements in how future farmlands are managed as more practical and cost-effective. To Despommier, though, the world already has the need and the technology to dramatically improve yields and reliability by adjusting its point of view: from out to up.

The Columbia researcher said his interest in vertical farming is an extension of his long-standing work on disease transmission among humans. Among the laundry list of benefits he cites, Despommier believes vertical farming could help break the transmission cycle of diseases in traditional agricultural settings. But it’s the potential to help solve impending food shortages that really excites him.

A recent exercise conducted by students in his medical ecology class found that a self-sustaining vertical farm able to feed 50,000 people could “fit comfortably within a city block,” rising perhaps 18 stories. With adequate funding, a smaller prototype could be up and running in seven to 10 years, he predicts. Eventually, full-scale versions could be a new feature of city skylines, climbing as high as 30 stories and filled with automated feeders, monitoring devices and harvesting equipment. And, of course, they would feature crops such as wheat, rice, sugar beets and leafy greens grown in mineral nutrient solutions or without any solid substrates at all.

These hydroponic and aeroponic growing techniques, respectively, have benefited from NASA’s strong interest because any long-term venture to the moon or beyond would require the use of self-contained and resource-limited growth chambers. Despommier concedes that current practices must be improved and systems put in place to quickly identify and quarantine plants stricken with pests or disease. “No pun intended, but the bugs need to be worked out of this thing,” he said.

He insists, though, that money is the last major obstacle. To his critics, that hurdle has tripped up past entrepreneurs and may yet be insurmountable. “I can’t be very optimistic about this study,” said Utah State’s Bugbee. “None of this is very new. But it doesn’t mean the whole concept is without merit. It just means the claims are greatly exaggerated.”

Bugbee’s chief objection is the exorbitant power requirement for such a vertical structure.  Plants on the lower floors would require artificial light year-round or expensive mechanical systems to get more light to them. And during a typical winter in northern U.S. cities, he said, average sunlight is only 5 percent to 10 percent of peak summer levels due to sapped intensity and shorter days.

“November, December, January and February are really dark,” Bugbee said. “Plants aren’t limited by the temperature, they’re limited by the light.” High-pressure sodium lights may be a reasonable stand-in for sunlight to maintain plant growth,  he said, but the electric bill is enormous. “Boy have a lot of people gone bankrupt trying hydroponic greenhouses for that reason.”

Nevertheless,  greenhouses such as Arizona’s 265-acre Eurofresh Farms are thriving with their hydroponic tomatoes and seedless cucumbers. Gene Giacomelli, Director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said questions of safety, quality and sustainability are pushing agriculture in a host of other directions, including Despommier’s vertical farming idea. “He’s one extreme – a very good one,” Giacomelli said.

Several years ago, Giacomelli and collaborators in Arizona explored another extreme when they won a contract to design and build a growth chamber within a new building at Antarctica’s Amundsen-Scott Research Station. The chamber can be tweaked remotely by scientists back in Arizona but is now largely managed by volunteers at the station.

Besides supplying some much-needed color and light for the research station’s residents during Antarctica’s bleak and bitterly cold winter months, the indoor chamber has yielded a range of crunchy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, hot and sweet peppers and even cantaloupe. Next year, a student will try to grow watermelon in what is arguably the worlds’ most inhospitable place for a garden. Remarkably, the plot has produced about two-thirds of what top greenhouses in North America can deliver.

“I like to say that we can grow any plant anywhere and any time, but for a price,” Giacomelli said. The catch in Antarctica is that electricity  for the lights and pumps has inflated the cost to about $50 per pound of fresh vegetables . “Now, the local person at the supermarket would say you’re crazy for spending that much money on vegetables,” he said. “But you give that number to NASA and they’d say, ‘Wow, that’s a good number.’”

Transportation costs
Back on Earth, Despommier said urban farms could defray some of their own expense by significantly cutting transportation costs. And as the local food movement gains in popularity with environmentally conscious consumers, he said, what could be more local than vertical farming? Despite a lack of major technological advances, the effort also stands to benefit from small but steady improvements in hydroponics and automated systems to control temperature, humidity and nutrient delivery, according to Giacomelli.

To curb the excessive reliance on electricity, Giacomelli’s own group is planning to experiment with fiber-optic tubes called solar pipes that can capture sunlight from the Antarctic growth chamber’s roof. Meanwhile, Utah State University researchers have developed a clear piece of curved polyethylene that can retain heat in the ground and extend the growing season by up to four months for summer squash and tomatoes.

As for keeping up with global food demand by growing crops such as rice and wheat,  “we’re going to have to get better at farming marginal lands,” Bugbee said, “but it’s still going to be done outside because the sunlight is so cheap — well, free — and the sunlight levels are so high in the summer.”

He agrees that some farming will move toward more controlled environments, especially for high-value crops like fresh herbs that otherwise would be difficult to supply year-round. “Chefs will pay a lot for fresh basil,” Bugbee said, “but we’re not going to feed the world with that.”