Agriculture 
No Tilling, No Burning: For sustainable soil health
In the rice-wheat cycle practiced by farmers in North-West India, crop residue is burnt, creating pollution and reducing soil productivity. It is possible to have three crops per year if conservation agriculture is practiced by farmers in the region, say ICAR scientists.
Chitosan Properties: source matters
More than two decades ago, a team from CSIR-NCL started inquiring into the basic science of the felicity of fungi to shift forms between yeast and hyphae. Now they are homing in on applications. Here are the details of the first one.
Garlic Quality and Yield: effects of sulphur
Quality of garlic depends on allicin and other sulphur containing compounds. What is the optimum sulphur fertilisation for better quality and higher yield? Researchers from two ICAR organisations in Pune investigate. Read more for the results.
Controlling Pink Bollworm: attract to distract
Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur suggest a solution for dealing with the pink bollworm, a problematic pest of cotton crop: use pheromones to confuse the male moths and disrupt mating. Read on for details.
Ethanol from Wheat Straw: Cheaper pretreatment
Researchers from IIT Madras have found a way to make the process of making ethanol from agro-waste cheaper. A move towards increasing farmers’ income, fulfilling fuel needs and reducing pollution from burning agricultural residues.
Jaggery-infused Coconut Chips: Healthier snack
What do you do when you have a bumper harvest of coconuts and the price in the market goes down? Make sweet, crisp coconut chips that can be preserved packaged and sold, say ICAR scientists. Here is the method.
Funds from Fish Scales
The world is throwing away more than 2 million tonnes of fish scales as waste every year. Muhamed Ashraf and team from the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi have now found a way to convert the waste to wealth.
Biological Control of Aphids: ladybird beetle
Aphids suck the sap out of our crops. The zigzag ladybird is a natural predator that can control the pest. Researchers from IARI find that the ladybirds do not even have to eat the pests: the mere presence of the predator is adequate to drive away the pestilence. Read more.
Mint Money from Mint
When should we plant mint? How should it be planted? At what density of plantation? Scientists from CSIR-CIMAP explore the best practices in mint cultivation to maximise farmers income.
Is the Banana Raw, Ripe or Rotten?
How can food industries select bananas at the right stage of ripeness for making various kinds of products? Easy, say researchers from Coimbatore. They have trained a machine learning algorithm to do just that.
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