How much land-based greenhouse gas mitigation can be achieved without compromising food security and environmental goals?

Feeding 9-10billion people by 2050 and preventing dangerous climate change are two of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Both challenges must be met while reducing the impact of land management on ecosystem services that deliver vital goods and services, and support human health and well-being. Few studies to date have considered the interactions between these challenges. In this study we briefly outline the challenges, review the supply- and demand-side climate mitigation potential available in the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use AFOLU sector and options for delivering food security. We briefly outline some of the synergies and trade-offs afforded by mitigation practices, before presenting an assessment of the mitigation potential possible in the AFOLU sector under possible future scenarios in which demand-side measures codeliver to aid food security. We conclude that while supply-side mitigation measures, such as changes in land management, might either enhance or negatively impact food security, demand-side mitigation measures, such as reduced waste or demand for livestock products, should benefit both food security and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Demand-side measures offer a greater potential (1.5-15.6Gt CO2-eq. yr(-1)) in meeting both challenges than do supply-side measures (1.5-4.3Gt CO2-eq. yr(-1) at carbon prices between 20 and 100US$ tCO(2)-eq. yr(-1)), but given the enormity of challenges, all options need to be considered. Supply-side measures should be implemented immediately, focussing on those that allow the production of more agricultural product per unit of input. For demand-side measures, given the difficulties in their implementation and lag in their effectiveness, policy should be introduced quickly, and should aim to codeliver to other policy agenda, such as improving environmental quality or improving dietary health. These problems facing humanity in the 21st Century are extremely challenging, and policy that addresses multiple objectives is required now more than ever.

Flexibility in Food Extraction Techniques in Urban Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata

Non-human primate populations, other than responding appropriately to naturally occurring challenges, also need to cope with anthropogenic factors such as environmental pollution, resource depletion, and habitat destruction. Populations and individuals are likely to show considerable variations in food extraction abilities, with some populations and individuals more efficient than others at exploiting a set of resources. In this study, we examined among urban free-ranging bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata (a) local differences in food extraction abilities, (b) between-individual variation and within-individual consistency in problem-solving success and the underlying problem-solving characteristics, and (c) behavioral patterns associated with higher efficiency in food extraction. When presented with novel food extraction tasks, the urban macaques having more frequent exposure to novel physical objects in their surroundings, extracted food material from PET bottles and also solved another food extraction task (i.e., extracting an orange from a wire mesh box), more often than those living under more natural conditions. Adults solved the tasks more frequently than juveniles, and females more frequently than males. Both solution-technique and problem-solving characteristics varied across individuals but remained consistent within each individual across the successive presentations of PET bottles. The macaques that solved the tasks showed lesser within-individual variation in their food extraction behavior as compared to those that failed to solve the tasks. A few macaques appropriately modified their problem-solving behavior in accordance with the task requirements and solved the modified versions of the tasks without trial-and-error learning. These observations are ecologically relevant - they demonstrate considerable local differences in food extraction abilities, between-individual variation and within-individual consistency in food extraction techniques among free-ranging bonnet macaques, possibly affecting the species' local adaptability and resilience to environmental changes.

Keystone food resources for honey bees in South Indian west coast during monsoon

The low level, denuded, laterite landscape of coastal Uttara Kannada has a rich diversity of monsoon herbs, including threatened and newly discovered ones. Our study reveals that honey bees congregate on the ephemeral herb community of Utricularias, Eriocaulons and Impatiens during their gregarious monsoon flowering period. Apis dorsata had highest visitations on Utricularias, Impatiens and Flacourtia indica, whereas Trigona preferred Eriocaulons. Laterite herb flora merits conservation efforts as a keystone food resource for the insect community, especially for honey bees.

Rethinking production of Taxol (R) (paclitaxel) using endophyte biotechnology

Taxol (R) (generic name paclitaxel) represents one of the most clinically valuable natural products known to mankind in the recent past. More than two decades have elapsed since the notable discovery of the first Taxol (R) producing endophytic fungus, which was followed by a plethora of reports on other endophytes possessing similar biosynthetic potential. However, industrial-scale Taxol (R) production using fungal endophytes, although seemingly promising, has not seen the light of the day. In this opinion article, we embark on the current state of knowledge on Taxol (R) biosynthesis focusing on the chemical ecology of its producers, and ask whether it is actually possible to produce Taxol (R) using endophyte biotechnology. The key problems that have prevented the exploitation of potent endophytic fungi by industrial bioprocesses for sustained production of Taxol (R) are discussed.

BIOMASS GASIFICATION TO SUBSTITUTE FOSSIL FUEL IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Food industries like biscuit and confectionary use significant amount of fossil fuel for thermal energy. Biscuit manufacturing in India is carried out both by organized and unorganized sector. The ratio of organized to unorganized sector is 60 : 40 (1). The total biscuit manufacturing in the organized sector India in 2008 was about 1.7 million metric tons (1). Accounting for the unorganized sector in India, the total biscuit manufacturing would have been about 2.9 million metric tons/annum. A typical biscuit baking is carried in a long tunnel kiln with varying temperature in different zones. Generally diesel is used to provide the necessary heat energy for the baking purpose, with temperature ranging from 190 C in the drying zone to about 300 C in the baking area and has to maintain in the temperature range of +/- 5 C. Typical oil consumption is about 40 litres per ton of biscuit production. The paper discusses the experience in substituting about 120 lts per hour kiln for manufacturing about 70 tons of biscuit daily. The system configuration consists of a 500 kg/hr gasification system comprising of a reactor, multicyclone, water scrubbers, and two blowers for maintaining the constant gas pressure in the header before the burners. Cold producer gas is piped to the oven located about 200 meters away from the gasifier. Fuel used in the gasification system is coconut shells. All the control system existing on the diesel burner has been suitably adapted for producer gas operation to maintain the total flow, A/F control so as to maintain the temperature. A total of 7 burners are used in different zones. Over 17000 hour of operation has resulted in replacing over 1800 tons of diesel over the last 30 months. The system operates for over 6 days a week with average operational hours of 160. It has been found that on an average 3.5 kg of biomass has replaced one liter of diesel.

Statistical Analysis of Wrist Pulse Signals Obtained Under Different Food Intake Conditions

It is well known that wrist pulse signals contain information about the status of health of a person and hence diagnosis based on pulse signals has assumed great importance since long time. In this paper the efficacy of signal processing techniques in extracting useful information from wrist pulse signals has been demonstrated by using signals recorded under two different experimental conditions viz. before lunch condition and after lunch condition. We have used Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, which is an effective measure of phase synchronization, in making a statistical analysis of wrist pulse signals. Contour plots and box plots are used to illustrate various differences. Two-sample t-tests show that the correlations show statistically significant differences between the groups. Results show that the correlation coefficient is effective in distinguishing the changes taking place after having lunch. This paper demonstrates the ability of the wrist pulse signals in detecting changes occurring under two different conditions. The study assumes importance in view of limited literature available on the analysis of wrist pulse signals in the case of food intake and also in view of its potential health care applications.

Food patch choice in climbing perch Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792)

The current study analysed how the climbing perch Anabas testudineus an air-breathing freshwater fish make choice when a pair of food patches differing in the gain is presented. The results revealed no significant variation in the preference towards the patch of food material cumulated in one place over the same amount of food dispersed in a wider area and located at an equal distance. Additionally, enhancement of the value of dispersed or cumulated patch, by moving it towards the subject fish (spatial discounting) was also found to be ineffective in influencing the food patch utilisation in this species.