Agriculture 
Pesticide that doesn’t leave residue on cardamom
Cardamom exports from India have suffered from rejection due to presence of fertilisers. Stanley Johnson and a team from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore has a suggestion to save cardamom from insect pests without leaving pesticide residues on the product.
Mycorrhiza in paddyfields: Surviving arsenic and salinity
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soils are known to improve crop productivity. But what if the soil is saline, contaminated with arsenic and is flooded for rice cultivation? How do we improve the diversity and population of these fungi?
What is good for farmers may be bad for fishermen
The variations in the flow of fresh water from rivers into estuaries change salinity and the prawns migrate into the sea. Damming rivers can change affect the life cycle of estuarine prawns, say researchers.
Myrobalan fruit extract for cow mastitis
Vaibhav D. Bhatt and his team from the Saurashtra University, Gujarat have a simple suggestion for treating inflammation of udders in cows. They find that the extract of the fruit powder of Terminalia chebula, a common medicinal tree in India, is effective in treating the infection.
Essential oils to preserve fruits and vegetables
Essential oils from Garlic is great to keep fungal infections on vegetables and fruits. But add essential oils from sesamum and Acorus calamus and you have a fantastic preservative even for soft fruit like plums that spoil easily.
Identifying shrimps: metabolomic fingerprinting
A team of scientists from the ICAR-CIFT, Kochi have come up with a simple technique to identify shrimps using metabolomic finger printing. A database of high resolution mass spectrometry of different species of shrimps will make trading of processed shrimps more transparent.
Composting Crop Residue: fungi that help
Instead of burning crop residue convert it to manure. ICAR scientists searched among landfill to dig out a consortium of thermophilic fungi that can speed up the process of composting. Good quality manure in just four months.
Lantana and Parthenium: from nuisance to good news
Researchers from IARI Delhi and the Banaras Hindu University show that parthenium and lantana, considered obnoxious weeds, are actually useful for farmers, especially those with fields that have potassium deficient acidic soils.
Mahabali in a Well: new snakehead fish
When people saw a new snakehead fish in a well in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, they were confused. Which is this strange fish? Scientists from the ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Kochi now tell us the answer.
Drum Composting for Household Kitchen Waste
IIT Bombay and NEERI Nagpur suggest decentralised composting of kitchen and garden waste to alleviate the urban wet gargabge problem. They developed a modified drum technique to accelerate compost production within five weeks.
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