Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gyopssisum in the mallow family Malvacae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India.
The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, textile.Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world’s arable land. India is the world’s largest producer of cotton. it is the most widely use natural fiber cloth in clothing today.The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.
There are 4 types of cotton:
Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to america
Gossypium barbadense– known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America
Gossypium arboreum– tree cotton, native to India
Gossypium Herbecea – Levant cotton
Can live at low rainfall
Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June.Cotton is naturally a perennial but is grown as an annual to help control pests.cotton grown today is cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation.Cotton can also be cultivated to have colors other than the yellowish off-white typical of modern commercial cotton fibers.
The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of moths,insects,butterflies and flies, and harmless to other forms of life.The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton, to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues.Cotton has gossypol, a toxin that makes it inedible. Bt cotton is ineffective against many cotton pests, and however, such as plant bugs,aphids and stink plants.
Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth for highly absorbent bath towels,denims,robes,cambric, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts and cotton twill. Socks ,clothes and most T shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets often are made from cotton. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in crocheted and knitting. In the Textile industry, cotton is used in Fishing nets,coffee filters,Tentsexplosives manufacture cotton paper, and in book binding. Fire hoseswere once made of cotton.
A dam failure or dam burst is a catastrophic type of failure characterized by the sudden, rapid, and uncontrolled release of impounded water. Between the years 2000 and 2009 more than 200 notable dam failures happened worldwide. A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, that directs or slows down the flow, often creating a reservoir,lake or impoundments.
Dam failures are comparatively rare, but can cause immense damage and loss of life when they occur.Other cases include the Chinese bombing of multiple dams during typhoon NINAin 1975 in an attempt to drain them before their reservoirs overflowed.
Lowering of dam crest height, which reduces spillway flow
Geological instability caused by changes to water levels during filling or poor surveying
Sliding of a mountain into the reservoir – not exactly a dam failure, but caused nearly the entire volume of the reservoir to be displaced and overtop the dam)
Poor maintenance, especially of outlet pipes
Extreme inflows.
Human, computer or design error or piping, especially in earthen dams
Earthquakes.
Over flow gives more damage.
The main causes of dam is overtopping: The crest dam is too high than capacity level.Foundation defects: error in constructions and failures of dam.Piping and seepage failures:These failures occur as a result of internal erosion caused by seepage and erosion.Conduit and valve failure: These failures occur as a result of problems with values and conduits.
Dam failures can be extremely harmful, especially because dams are considered “installations containing dangerous forces”.Many dam failures are also secondary results of other natural disasters such as earthquakes, land slides,heavy stroms, or heavy snow-melt. Other causes include equipment malfunction, structural damage, and sabotage.
In INDIA, The major failure is Machchhu dam failure or Morbi disaster was a dam-related flood disaster which occurred on 11 August 1979. The Machchu-2 dam, situated on the Machhu river, burst, sending a wall of water through the town of Morbi of Gujarat, India. The another dam failure is ratnagiri dam failure in 2019 in maharastra.
Operation Flood is the program that lead to the ‘White Revolution’
V. Kurien with PM Lal Bahadur Shastri
1.Introduction-
Operation Flood , launched on 13 January,1970 was started by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), world’s largest dairy development program. The objective of this programme was to create a nationwide milk grid. The result was that India became the largest producer of Milk and Milk Products. Operation Flood was a rural development programme started by India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1970. One of the largest of its kind, the programme objective was to create a nationwide milk grid. It resulted in making India one of the largest producers of milk and milk products, and hence is also called the White Revolution of India. It also helped reduce malpractices by milk traders and merchants.
2.Father of White Revolution-
Varghese Kurien (chairman of NDDB at that time), gave the professional management skills and necessary uplift to the cooperative, and is considered the “Architect of India’s White Revolution (Operation Flood)”- The White Revolution. The main architect of this successful project was Dr. Verghese Kurien, also called the father of White Revolution. In 1949 Mr. Kurien joined Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (KDCMPUL), now famous as Amul voluntarily leaving a government job of dairy engineer. V. Kurien is known as Father of White Revolution for introducing ‘billion-litre’ idea that is Operation Flood.
During the 1964-65, Intensive Cattle Development Programme (ICDP) was introduced in the country in which a package of improved animal husbandry was given to cattle owners for promoting the white revolution in the country. Later on to increase the speed of the white revolution, a new programme named “operation flood” was introduced in the country by the National Dairy Development Board.
It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the United States of America in 1998 Revolution with about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11. Within 30 years, it doubled the milk available per person in India and made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment generator. It was launched to help farmers direct their own development and giving them control of the resources they create. All this was achieved not merely by mass production, but by production by the masses; the process has since been termed as the White Revolution.
3.Objectives-
• Increase milk production (“a flood of milk”) • Augment rural incomes and reasonable prices for consumers.
4.How Operation Flood created the ‘flood’ of milk?
Operation Flood worked in three phases which ensured the following: • It created a national milk grid linking producers. throughout India with consumers in over 700 towns and cities. • It reduced the seasonal and regional price variations. • It ensured that the producer gets a major share of the price consumers pay, by cutting out middlemen. • The bedrock of the program was village milk producers’ co-operatives, which procure milk and provide inputs and services.
Programme implementation-
Operation Flood was implemented in three phases.
•Phase I – Phase I (1970-1980) was financed by the sale of skimmed milk powder and butter oil gifted by the European Union then EEC through the World Food Programme. NDDB planned the programme and negotiated the details of EEC assistance. During its first phase, Operation Flood linked 18 of India’s premier milk-sheds with consumers in India’s four major metropolitan cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
• Phase II – Operation Flood’s Phase II (1981-85) increased the milk-sheds from 18 to 136; 290 urban markets expanded the outlets for milk. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives covering 4.25 million milk producers had become a reality. Domestic milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-project year to 140,000 tons by 1989, all of the increase coming from dairies set up under Operation Flood. In this way EEC gifts and World Bank loan helped to promote self-reliance. Direct marketing of milk by producers’ cooperatives increased by several million litres a day.
• Phase III- Phase III (1985-1996) enabled dairy cooperatives to expand and strengthen the infrastructure required to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary first-aid health care services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended, along with intensified member education. Operation Flood’s Phase III consolidated India’s dairy cooperative movement, adding 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies organized during Phase II. Milk-sheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women’s Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly. Phase III gave increased emphasis to research and development in animal health and animal nutrition. Innovations like vaccine for Theileriosis , bypass protein feed and urea-molasses mineral blocks, all contributed to the enhanced productivity of milch animals. From the outset, Operation Flood was conceived and implemented as much more than a dairy programme. Rather, dairying was seen as an instrument of development, generating employment and regular incomes for millions of rural people. “Operation Flood can be viewed as a twenty year experiment confirming the Rural Development Vision” ( World Bank Report 1997c.)
5.Conclusion-
However, As the program came into force, India escalated from 50th position to the peak in terms of milk production in just a couple of decades. Operation Flood has made the country self sufficient in milk and milk products through modernization of our dairy industry. More important, being a small-producer oriented programme, it has impacted positively on income, employment and nutrition status of milk producing households. The rural families targeted under this programme were ones with small resource base – both animal and land holdings. Over 70 per cent of the families possessed only two milch animals or less; 21 per cent families were landless and 66 percent were small and marginal farmers owning less than four ha of land. Operation flood came out be boon for India.
Despite of Indian backbone and huge possibilities and potential sector Agriculture treated as a sick industry in India, why this so ironic to call Sick even it involved about sixty percent of the people gives about twenty percent of the GDP still marked as a symbol of low status in India, it was eighteen hundred and fifty seven when Indian peasantry aroused against the Britishers ignited the the great revolt of independence which was supported by peasants on large scale Indian peasants gives their man money and spirit to rise against the Britishers. and this urge britishers to impose tax collection systems they invented Zamidari system Ryotwari system collected tax according to their wish and britishers broke the backbone of indian agriculture breaking peasants and putting them under harsh conditions. and up-to the 1947 Indian Agriculture was at the weakest point and Britishers policies and systems create a mindset of sickness towards agriculture. But instead of all the miserable conditions Agriculture connects man to land in rural India agriculture is treated as a tradition as a social practice and means to life. Today if we need Economy on stable basis if economy have to be strengthened that strength can be induced by agriculture. India had twelve months of the sunshine water and we are capable of growing crops full twelve months otherwise united states they can not grow crops three month in a year Several parts of Europe can not grow six months in a year. but In India we can grow crops full year and almost we can do triple the production. we need only Some good practices , monitoring and infrastructural changes.
Is Indian land capable of sustaining it ?
Indian land without any question is capable of sustaining it. it was under ‘Lal Bahadur Sastri’ tenure when India nearly had a Famine Every Indian waiting for another bag of wheat from United states and a famous headline of those times India living ship to mouth but Lal Bahadur Sastri brought up a package of Seeds and gave ten to twenty percent to farmers and India became self sufficient in Food grain production.
Hence, Indian Rural Agriculture needs Infrastructural development which can contribute to prosper Living standards and have might to increase per capita income.
Initial needs : farmers need quality seeds , procurement market of seeds good machines for seeding.
At the time of cultivation :
farmers needs proper facility of fertilizers, good pesticides, good insecticides and practices with modified machines.
Irrigation Facilities:
Irrigation is one of the important factor for growing Crops for which farmers needs good canals tube-wells electricity for deriving them or farmers can approach to solar energy used pumps etc.
Stock Facilities :
After cultivating the crops stock of the material is another challenge in front of farmers. In India in the rural parts of it Farmers does not have proper Storage Facilities. Farmers Need good Stock markets so that they can stay their stock for long time.
Transportation Facilities :
Transportation is the major problem of every rural farmer. Rural parts of the country does not have good means of connectivity Transportation is considered to be the important aspect of Buisness and good connectivity can lead Agricultural products to the new markets where farmers can available with better prices for their agricultural commodities.
Marketing Facilities:
Lack Of local ‘Mandi’ and markets farmers are unable to Sell their Agriculture Commodities on better prices. and this leads benefits to the stakeholders which make it lucrative between the farmers and retailers.
There are various ways which should be regulated for enhancing the Rural Infrastructure like GOI should increase the financial assistance to the farmers through NABAR credit facilities and various cooperatives societies and loan facilities. Contract farming should be encouraged between farmers and company. etc.
Agriculture is the basis of Livelihood, it connects people with the land and have huge potential and Power to transform Indian socio economic vision.
“The door for change is open for all time. The next moment we take the first step from us, the universe will create all the forces for achieving it,” said , Nammazlvar – The agriculture scientist This proverb is very consistent with the changes of the emerging 2020s. It is time for change. * Food is the medicine and the medicine is the food* where this line gets immunity nowadays in this pandemic of Covid 19 to grow up our immune system. The claim is that this community is growing and growing. With the economic downturn, hunger, disease and long-distance migrant workers, all they can expect is just a good meal. Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy but it accounts for only 14% of GDP.
Reliance, Tata Families Why Don’t Invest in Agriculture? If they do, the new farming technologies abroad will benefit the Indian people, and it may inspire a lot of small investors. We go with the lure of money. So the top investment in agriculture is to make a good profit.
Have Ambani not invested in agriculture ? In 1997, the Jamnagar Refinery was one of the country’s largest pollutants and was the biggest threat to Reliance. After a serious threat from the government, they turned the Jamnagar barren wasteland into a mango orchid. Currently it is said to be * Dhirubai Ambani Lakhibag Amrayee *. It is the best mango orchid in Asia. More than 1.3 lakh plants of over 200 species.
In a few years the barren lands were turned into lush countryside. The mangoes produced are excellent in quality and are widely exported worldwide. The company has become one of the biggest exporters of mangoes in the society and a great business opportunity. While large investment firms invest in agriculture, the resilience of farmers of intermediaries and agricultural marketing comes to an end. It will also be a major contributor to Indian GDP and stimulate raise in the standard of living. Needs are becoming greater for man because of the involvement of money but changes in lifestyle.
Similarly, the impact of food production on India’s independence was very worrying. The sky is gone. Due to the lack of food, starvation deaths among people have developed into a disease in India. The Green Revolution was a project introduced in the 1940s. It is still spoken of as a major contributor to the uplift of the socioeconomic economy. The result? Controversies of the Green Revolution Project. The project was based on the people then, and as a result, chemicals are causing diabetes, cancer and infertility. We have been restoring natural agriculture quite a bit. We need to create natural agriculture as a gateway to change.
The kitchen gardening revolution of 2020 where you grow you eat healthier as much . It helps in preventing the toxic chemicals , purely hygienic nutrients that enhance your immune and to a part of hobby, exercise etc.
“It’s time for change, let’s get rid of the sickness, let the dawn of the eyes of the owl come to life. Let us value the nutritious food. Dharshini N.
The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. The prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply: Animal Science/Aqua Culture, Soil Science/Water/Conservation, Nutrition/Health, Plant Science/Seed Science, Plant Pathology/Crop Protection, Food Technology/Food Safety, Policy/Research/Extension, Infrastructure/Emergency Relief, & Poverty Alleviation/Hunger. The World Food Prize is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the field of Agriculture, and the recipient is awarded $250,000 for improving the quality and availability of food.
“This year 2020, Indian- American Soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal wins prestigious World Food Prize.”An alumnus of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Indian Agricultural Research Institute,New Delhi and a renowned agricultural soil scientist from Ohio State University (OSU). Dr.Lal has been named as this year’s recipient of the World Food Prize for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.
The World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson announced Lal as the winner in an online ceremony in Washington DC ,Thursday 11 June. The ceremony featured pre-recorded remarks from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.
“The unbound joy and excitement of receiving the 2020 World Food Prize reminds me about the gratitude, privilege and honour of working for farmers from around the world ” Dr. Lal said.
Dr. Lal’s model indicates that restoring soil health can lead to multiple benefits by the year 2100, including more than doubling the global annual grain yield to feed the growing world population, while decreasing the land area under grain cultivation by 30 per cent and decreasing fertiliser use by half. His research led a better understanding of how no-till farming, cover crops, crop residues, mulching, and agroforestry can restore degraded soils, increasing organic matter by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil, and help combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the air.
“Dr Lal’s research in soil science shows that the solution to this problem is right under our feet. He’s helping the earth’s estimated 500 million small farmers be faithful stewards of their land through improved management, less soil degradation, and the recycling of nutrients. The billions of people who depend on these farms stand to benefit greatly from his work. “- Secretary Pompeo.
The World Food Prize was established by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman E Borlaug in 1986.The first recipient of this award was Indian Agricultural Scientist Dr. M. S. Swaminathan in 1987,regarded as “Father of India’s Green Revolution.
International Journal of Research (IJR) 