What is biofertilizer?

After the introduction of chemical fertilizers in the last century, farmers were happy of getting increased yield in agriculture in the beginning. But slowly chemical fertilizers started displaying their ill-effects such as leaching out, and polluting water basins, destroying micro-organisms and friendly insects, making the crop more susceptible to the attack of diseases, reducing the soil fertility and thus causing irreparable damage to the overall system.

A number of intellectuals throughout the world started working on the alternatives and found that biofertilizers can help in increasing the yield without causing the damage associated with chemical fertilizers.

What is biofertilizer?

The name itself is self explanatory. The fertilizers are used to improve the fertility of the land using biological wastes, hence the term biofertilizers, and biological wastes do not contain any chemicals which are detrimental to the living soil. They are extremely beneficial in enriching the soil with those micro-organisms, which produce organic nutrients for the soil and help combat diseases. The farm produce does not contain traces of hazardous and poisonous materials. Thus those products are accepted across the world as Organic ones. Hence for organic farming the use of biofertilizers is mandatory.

Galaxy of Biofertilizers

Phospho: It releases insoluble phosphorus in soil and fix this phosphorus in clay minerals which is of great significance in agriculture.

Rhizo: Rhizo Bacterial plays a very important role in agriculture by inducing nitrogen fixings nodules on the root of legumes such as peas,beans clove and alfalfa.

Azotobactor: Atmosphere contains 78% nitrogen which is a very important nutrient for plant growth. Azotobactor fixes the atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and make it available to the plants. It protects the roots from other pathogens present in the soil

Trichoderma: It is a non- pathogenic and eco-friendly product. The product is antagonistic hyper parasitic against different pathogens in the field and economically well established biocontrol agent

Composter: (Decomposing Culture): Composter breaks down any organic matter such as dead plants farm yard waste, cattle waste etc. thereby increasing the soil productivity.

Tricho-Card: Trichogramma is an efficient destroyer of eggs of many leaf and flower eaters, stems, fruit, shoot borers etc. It can be used in a variety of crops as well as in horticultural and ornamental plants,such as sugarcane,cotton,brinjal,tomato,corn,jawar,vegetables,citrus,paddy apple etc.

Vermi Compost: It is 100% pure eco-friendly organic fertilizer. This organic fertilizer has nitrogen phosphorus, potassium,organic carbon,sulphur,hormones,vitamins,enzymes and antibiotics which helps to improve the quality and quantity of yield. It is observed that due to continuous misuse of chemical fertiliser soil losses its fertility and gets salty day by day. To overcome such problems natural farming is the only remedy and Vermi compost is the best solution.

Biocompost: It is eco-friendly organic fertilizer which is prepared from the sugar industry waste material which is decomposed and enriched of with various plants and human friendly bacteria and fungi. Biocompost consists of nitrogen, phosphate solubilizing bacteria and various useful fungi like decomposing fungi, trichoderma viridea which protects the plants from various soil borne disease and also help to increase soil fertility which results to a good quality product to the farmers.

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Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan

On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes – government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.

If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options

DNA fingerprinting techniques

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis

The first methods used for DNA fingerprinting, involved restriction enzyme digestion, followed by Southern blot analysis. Although polymorphisms can exist in the restriction enzyme cleavage sites, more commonly the enzymes and DNA probes were used to analyze VNTR loci. However, the Southern blot technique is laborious, and requires large amounts of undegraded sample DNA.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis

PCR greatly amplifies the amounts of a specific region of DNA, using oligonucleotide primers and a thermostable DNA polymerase. The PCR method is readily adaptable for analyzing VNTR loci.

Short tandem repeats (STR) analysis

The most prevalent method of DNA profiling used today is based on PCR and uses short tandem repeats (STR). This method uses highly polymorphic regions that have short repeated sequences of DNA. Because different unrelated people have different numbers of repeat units, these regions of DNA can be used to discriminate between unrelated individuals. These STR loci are targeted with sequence-specific primers and are amplified using PCR. The DNA fragments that result are then separated and detected using electrophoresis. There are two common methods of separation and detection, capillary electrophoresis (CE) and gel electrophoresis.

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AmpFLP)

This is faster than RFLP analysis and used PCR to amplify DNA samples. It relied on VNTR polymorphisms to distinguish various alleles, which were separated on a polyacrylamide gel using an allelic ladder. Bands could be visualized by silver staining the gel. AmpFLP analysis can be highly automated, and allows for easy creation of phylogenetic trees based on comparing individual samples of DNA.

Y-chromosome analysis

Recent innovations have included the creation of primers targeting polymorphic regions on the Y-chromosome (Y-STR), which allows resolution of a mixed DNA sample from a male and female and/or cases in which a differential extraction is not possible. Y-chromosomes are paternally inherited, so Y-STR analysis can help in the identification of paternally related males.

Mitochondrial analysis

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is sometimes typed due to there being many copies of mtDNA in a cell, while there may only be 1-2 copies of the nuclear DNA. Forensic scientists amplify the HV1 and HV2 regions of the mtDNA, and then sequence each region and compare single nucleotide differences to a reference. Because mtDNA is maternally inherited, directly linked maternal relatives can be used as match references. A difference of two or more nucleotides is generally considered to be exclusion. Some expertise on the part of the analyst is required. mtDNA is useful in determining unclear identities, such as those of missing persons when a maternally linked relative can be found.

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Golden day of Maldivian Football

Maldives street celebrations after winning SAFF championship 2008.

COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE PRODUCTION (RADISH & TOMATO)

RADISH

• Family : Brassicaceae

• Botanical Name : Raphanus sativus

• Recommended Varieties : Japanese Ball Beeralu Rabu

Table Radish

Beeralu Rabu

• Roots : Spindle shape, White skin

• Leaves : Neither lobed nor pubescent

• Harvesting time : 45 – 50 days

Japanese Ball

• Roots : Round, White skin

• Leaves : Lobed to mid- rib pubescent

• Harvest time : 45 – 55 days

• Suitable for : Up country & Hill country

Table Radish

• Roots : Marble size, red & can be eaten as raw

• Harvesting time : 35 – 40 days

Nutritional Value

• Used as vegetable or salad in Sri Lanka

• Major component in the edible portion of radish is water that amounts 94.5%

• Contains protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber and ash

Field establishment

• Climate

Can be grown in all agro ecological regions

• Soil

Well drained soils with a pH range of 6.0 – 7.5

• Land preparation

Soil should be ploughed to a depth of 30-40 cm to provide fine tilt

Prepare a raised bed

Add well decomposed cow dung to the soil

• Seed rate

5 kg/ha

• Time of planting

In upcountry, only during March to May and August to October to avoid flowering

• Planting and spacing

» Between rows – 25 – 30 cm

» Between plants – 10 cm

» For table radish – 20 cm * 5 cm

Plant 2 seeds per hole & thin out one at

germination

Crop management

• Fertilizer use ( Kg / ha )

• Irrigation

• Irrigate daily for the first 4 – 5 days

• Then every 3 – 4 days depending on rainfall

• Weed control

• One hand weeding 4 weeks after planting for the up country

• 2 weeks after planting for the low country

Pest and disease control

• Diseases

• Club root

Symptoms

• Swelling/ malformation on the main root and laterals

• Stunted growth

Control

• Raise soil pH with heavy dressing of lime

• Avoid continuous cropping of crucifers

• Keep the field free of wild mustard

• Bacterial rot

• Pests

• Cutworms

• Vegetable leaf miner

Damage

• Cut through the stems of young plants

• Roots closer to the ground surface may damage

Control

• Insecticide treatments

• Leaf eating caterpillars

• Striped flea beetle

Damage

• Adults punching leaves for both feeding and oviposition

Control

• Yellow traps

• Neem seed kernel water Extract

• Neemazal

• Harvest

Should be done at proper time

Delay in harvesting reduces the quality of radish by accumulating high amount of fibrous

• Yield

Japanese ball – 40-50 t/ha

Beeralu – 20-30 t/ha

• Post-harvest practices

Grade roots & handle carefully to avoid mechanical damages

Pack roots in well ventilated containers if transport long distances

TOMATO

TOMATO

• Family : Solanaceae

• Botanical Name : Lycopersicon esculentum

• Recommended Varieties : Maheshi
Rajitha
Rashmi
Ravi
Tharindu
Thilina
Lanka sour

T245

Cultivated Variety : THILINA

Special Characteristics of the Variety THILINA

• Average yield- 40 t/ha

• Resistant to bacterial wilt

• Fruit weight- 90g

• Thick pericarp

• Ripen fruit is orange

• Even fruit size

• High vitamin C

• Long Shelf life

• Indeterminate type (vine)

Nutritional Value

• Ripe tomato contains 93 to 94 % water

• High nutritive value being a good source of vitamins (A, B and C) and minerals

• Constipation and has a pleasing and refreshing taste

• Lycopene (red pigment) content prevents the growth of cancers in human beings

Nursery Management

• Site selection

• Land preparation

• Seed bed preparation

• Sterilization of the seed bed

• Seed treatment

• Seed sowing

• Hardening of seedlings

• Uprooting of seedlings

Transplanting

• Climate

Grown in all agro-ecological zones

Annual rain fall less than 2000 mm

• Land preparation

Soils should be ploughed to a depth of 30-40 cm to provide fine tilt

Prepare a raised bed

• Seed rate

300-400 g / ha

• Transplanting & Spacing

Transplant 14- 21 days old plants

Dip plants in a fungicide solution

Spacing 80 cm * 50 cm

Two plants per hole

Provide shading

Crop management

• Fertilizer use ( Kg / ha)

• Irrigation

Supply enough amount of water

Never over watering specially after dry periods; fruit ruptures may occur

• Weed Control

3 & 6 weeks after planting

• Staking

Done to avoid plant

breakages & stem breakages

Practiced before flowering

• Major Pests

Fruit Borer

Leaf Miner

• Major Diseases

Damping -off at nursery stage

Bacterial wilt
Anthracnose
Blight
Mildew

Virus

• Harvesting

60 to 70 days depending on the variety and temperature

When color change Green to Yellow

10 – 12 times per season

Yield potential: 20 to 30 tons / ha depending on the variety

• Post Harvest Handling

Grading of fruits & packed in wooden boxes facilitating good aeration

History of wayamba university

The Wayamba Campus of the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka was established on the recommendation of a Committee consisting of Hon. Wishva Warnapala, Deputy Minister of Education & Higher Education as Chairman. This Committee was appointed by the Hon. Minister of Education and Higher Education Richard Pathiranna on 22nd December,1994 to report on the Affiliated University Colleges. On the recommendation of the above Committee, nine Affiliated University Colleges spread out in various provinces of the country were merged to form two National Universities, the Rajarata and Sabaragamuwa Universities of Sri Lanka on 07th November 1996.
The Affiliated University College of the North Western province which consisted of two academic sections namely; Home Science and Nutrition and the Agriculture, originally affiliated to the Universities of Kelaniya and Peradeniya respectively, were merged to from the Wayamba Campus and established in terms of the provision of the Sections 18 and 47 (1) of the University Act. No. 16 of 1978 and Campus Board Ordinance No 3 of 1995.
As provided in the Act referred to above, two Faculties were set up to form the Wayamba Campus namely, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and the Faculty of Applied Sciences I , each with three Departments of Study.
The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences constituted the Departments of Plantation Management, Horticultural Sciences and Food Technology and Agricultural Engineering, while the Faculty of Applied Sciences I consisted of the Departments of Mathematical Sciences , Industrial Management and Computer Studies, Nutrition and Community Resources Management.
A committee appointed in 1999 made recommendations to upgrade the Wayamba Campus to a fully-fledged University. Based on the recommendations of this committee, the Wayamba University was established in August 1999 with four Faculties namely Faculty of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Business Studies and Finance, Faculty of Agriculture

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern nation of Egypt. The civilization began around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history occurred in a series of stable periods, known as kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. After the end of the last kingdom, known as the New Kingdom, the civilization of ancient Egypt entered a period of slow, steady decline, during which Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers. The rule of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a province.

The civilization of ancient Egypt thrived from its abilty to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. Controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a divine pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people through an elaborate system of religious beliefs.

Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC)

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians included a system of mathematics, quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, obelisks, faience and glass technology, a practical and effective system of medicine, new forms of literature, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, and the earliest known peace treaty. Egypt left a lasting legacy: art and architecture were copied and antiquities paraded around the world, and monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of tourists and writers for centuries. A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy for Egypt and the world

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Sri lanka

Sri Lankan troops close on the Tigers’ lair.