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The fund allocation in agricultural sector in India is heavily tilted toward input subsidies provision; however, researchers seem to favor investment expenditure instead. The present paper seeks to compare the usefulness of input subsidies as compared to investment with regard to agricultural productivity so that policy makers hit the right tool and avoid less productive state expenditure. We investigated a total of four regression models using autoregressive and distributed lag cointegration in a time series framework covering period from 1983 to 2019. The first model considers all input subsidies in aggregate form, and the rest three models take input subsidies in disaggregate forms, namely fertilizer subsidy, irrigation subsidy and power subsidy, respectively. It is observed from the results that input subsidies still contribute more than what public investment does to agricultural productivity. It is also found that power subsidy is the most effective component of input subsidies followed by fertilizer subsidy. Hence, government expenditure on input subsidies is justified on the ground that it ensures all farmers to have access to affordable agricultural inputs. Targeted subsidies combined with adequate investment in agricultural infrastructure could deliver long-term agricultural development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers submit claims to insurance providers when affected by sowing/planting risk, standing crop risk, post-harvest risk, and localized calamities risk. Decision making for settlement of claims submitted by farmers has been observed to comprise of type-I and type-II errors. The existence of these errors reduces confidence on agri-insurance providers and government in general as it fails to serve the needy farmers (type-I error) and sometimes serve the ineligible farmers (type-II error). The gaps in currently used underlying data, methods and timelines including anomalies in locational data used in crop sampling, inclusion of invalid data points in computation, estimation of crop yield, and determination of the total sown area create barriers in executing the indemnity payments for small and marginal farmers in India. In this paper, we present a satellite big data analytics based case study in a region in India and explain how the anomalies in the legacy processes were addressed to minimize type-I and type-II errors and thereby make ethical decisions while approving farmer claims. Our study demonstrates what big data analytics can offer to increase the ethicality of the decisions and the confidence at which the decision is made, especially when the beneficiaries of the decision are poor and powerless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change was assessed in Rajasthan, using IPCC AR5 framework. Among the highly vulnerable and risky districts, Bikaner district was selected for elicitation of micro-level imperatives. Rising atmospheric temperature, inter-seasonal displacements of rainfall and recurrence of extreme events were perceived by the farmers resulting in resource degradation, production risks and erosion of households' socio-economic dynamics. As risk preventive measures, suitable adjustment in agricultural practices, natural resource management, shift to off-farm activities and other relief measures were adopted by the farmers. Farmer's choice of adaptation was influenced by several climatic, socio-economic and infrastructural & institutional factors in varying degree. Moreover, several financial, economic, infrastructural and informational bottlenecks to adaptations were reported during household survey and FGDs. The results suggest that capturing grassroots evidence is crucial for directing locally tailored adaptation strategies, along with the improving deficiencies in the developmental pathways for climate-resilient agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) has emerged as a major development paradigm that works to diversify crops and diets throughout the Global South in order to improve nutritional outcomes. Drawing on a conceptual framework from political ecologies of health that looks at political economic factors, social discourse, and embodied, material experiences of food, I analyze qualitative and ethnographic data from an integrated NSA intervention in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, India. The analysis shows that while embodied experiences of differing rice varieties (either indigenous or improved) were central to research participants' conceptions of bodily health, mainstream NSA metrics had trouble 'seeing' these relations in meaningful ways. Moreover, although material experiences of rice cultivation and consumption anchored participants' rice preferences, structural economic realities along with notions of social identity were always interwoven. Yet, while villagers expressed divergent perceptions around how the different rice cultivars shaped their bodily health, agricultural officers tended to view rice experiences as a product of culture, rather than as material and socio-ecological food-body interactions. In sum, this paper argues more deeply engaging with the political economic, socially symbolic, and embodied ways that communities relate to food production and consumption would allow NSA research to develop more grounded and inclusive understandings of agriculture-nutrition linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, agriculture is recognized as a highly vulnerable sector to climate change and risks from climatic aberrations pose an imminent danger to the food security and sustainability of livelihoods. To bring robustness in climate adaptation planning, evaluation of resilience across homogenous regions is essential for developing and scaling suitable location-need-context specific interventions and policies that build the resilience of the agricultural system. In this paper, we present an analysis and discussion of multi-scalar and multi-indicator assessment, by profiling resilience across agro-climatic zones of India, based on the development of a Climate-Resilient Agriculture Index embracing environmental, technological, socio-economic, and institutional and infrastructural dimension. A total of 26 indicators, spread across these four dimensions, were employed to purport inter- and intra-agro-climatic zone differentials in the level of resilience. Among the zones, it was found that West Coast Plains & Ghats and Tans-Gangetic Plains had the highest degree of resilience to manage climate risks. Most of the districts lying within Eastern Himalayan Region, Middle Gangetic Plains, Eastern Plateau & Hills, and Western Dry Region had a lower degree of resilience. The study places greater emphasis on deciphering region-specific drivers and barriers to resilience at a further disaggregated scale for improving rural well-beings. It is construed that devising action plans emphasizing awareness, preservation of natural resources, diversification, building physical infrastructure, strengthening of grass-root institutions, and mainstreaming climate adaptation in the developmental policy is crucial for climate-resilient pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses major challenges to agricultural systems in drought prone regions of the world especially in the areas with high poverty, lack of irrigation facilities and low productivity. Towards this it is essential to understand the climate change perceptions, adaptation practices and barriers to effective adaptation at household and community level. This paper using household surveys and focus group discussions in one of the drought prone areas of Odisha in India, explores various aspects of perception on climate change and barriers to adaptation. It also analyses the accuracy of perceptions based on rainfall data from nearest meteorological stations. The study reinforces the argument by earlier studies that the perception by people simply cannot be wrong because they may have a just a low correlation with underlying meteorological data. Results suggest that farmers increasingly perceive the changes in the rainfall and temperature patterns. However, when compared with the trend in actual rainfall data, perceptions on rainfall are found to more closely align with the results from the nearest station as compared to the station farther from it. Analysis revealed that seasonal rainfall variability has a profound influence on the farmers' perceptions on climate change and drought in the study region. Farmers' are still dependent on the traditional forecasting system because of the lack of access to modern climate forecasting and tailored information for agricultural practice. Although farmers in the study region are already adapting to the changing climate, the study finds that while lack of access to water and irrigation, information on climate change adaptation and early warning systems are major barriers to adaptation at the household level lack of government intervention, lack of knowledge on drought resistant crops and varieties and lack of renovation of water bodies and irrigation were mentioned as the major barriers at the community level. Findings from the paper argue for better adaptation planning at the local level incorporating local level perceptions and barriers to adaptation. In such areas local level planning can be crucial in enhancing the adaptive capacity of the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Global) value chains have contributed to agricultural technology adoption in transition countries and food export commodities in developing countries through various forms of vertical coordination, often associated with FDI. Adoption of modern technologies in agriculture is crucial for improving the productivity and welfare of poor farmers. Much less is known about how (global) value chains do (not) affect technology transfer and/or adoption in staple food chains in developing countries, and the role that FDI plays. Our paper analyses the role of value chains and FDI in farm-level technology adoption with the use of panel data from representative farm surveys in 2008 and 2015 (a period of rapid growth) in the dairy sector in India (Punjab). We find important increases in the adoption of some technologies among traditional and poor dairy farms. However, the role of vertical coordination in value chains in stimulating technology adoption among these traditional dairy farmers seems to be minor, both for domestic and for FDI companies. At the same time a sub-sector of dynamic modern dairy farms has emerged. These farms are much larger, use only modern technology, and are fully integrated in vertically coordinated value chains that support these modern farms' management and investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is an important downside risk in Indian agriculture; and the spatial differences in its intensity and probability of occurrence are considerable. To develop strategies to manage the risk of drought, and to coordinate and implement these strategies, it is essential to understand the variation in drought risk across geographical or administrative levels. This paper, using a multilevel modeling approach, decomposes the variation in drought risk across states, regions, districts, villages and households, and finds it disproportionately distributed. About half the variation is attributed to between-individual (i.e., household) differences and the rest to between-population differences, mainly to states and villages. These findings suggest the potential for a critical role of states (policies) and local institutions (communities) in enhancing resilience of agriculture to droughts through the correct targeting of policies and support for the most appropriate geographic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to estimate and identify the regional disparity of India's agricultural labour productivity growth by decomposing it into technical changes, efficiency changes and input accumulation per worker during the 2000–2016, the period marked with the launch of employment guarantee programme in rural India in 2006 and 2007. The study observes a significant growth in agricultural labour productivity despite variation in their sources, across the states in India during the sample period. While growth of India's agricultural labour productivity mainly depended on the accumulation of inputs and technical progress, efficiency changes contributed more towards regional disparities in agricultural productivity growth. Improving efficiency to promote TFP growth is important for agricultural labour productivity growth for the low-performing states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recurrent drought events in the Palamu district of Jharkhand state and the magnitude of drought losses primarily toward agricultural production in this dominantly monocropped region indicate the continuing susceptibility of the society to drought. This paper presents a method for spatial, geoinformatics-based assessment of agricultural, meteorological, and hydrological drought hazard in Palamu district. It was hypothesized that the key climatic, biophysical and social factors that define agricultural drought hazard were soils, geomorphology, drainage density, land use, and relief, whereas for meteorological drought hazard, it is rainfall, coefficient of variation of rainfall and for hydrological drought hazard, it is lithology, depth to water table, aquifer yield, and surface water bodies. The framework for the derivation of an agricultural, meteorological, and hydrological drought hazard map was created through the development of a numerical weighting scheme to evaluate the drought potential of the classes within each factor. A cumulative map created through spatial join of all the three types of drought provided a drought hazard scenario in totality. The area with different severity of drought hazards under cumulative drought hazards scenario (viz. very low (8.9 %), low (24.2 %), moderate (29.2 %), high (20.13), and very high (17.3 %)) revealed high drought proneness of the area and the usefulness of geoinformatics in better spatial prognosis of drought hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposal of untreated urban sewage in to open water bodies is common in most developing countries. This poses potential negative consequences to public health and agricultural sustainability. Hyderabad, one of India’s largest cities, disposes large amounts of its wastewater untreated into the Musi River, from where it is used, with the aid of irrigation weirs, for agricultural production. This paper presents a 14 month (December 2003 – January 2005) water quality survey which aimed to quantify spatial and temporal changes in key water quality parameters along a 40 km stretch of the Musi River. The survey found that river water quality improved dramatically with distance from the city; from untreated sewage in the city to irrigation water safe for use in agriculture 40 km downstream of the city. This improvement was contributed to by different treatment processes caused or aided by the irrigation weirs placed on the river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Botany is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses the introduction of subsurface drainage as a tool to improve rice production in low land areas of acid sulphate soils. Pipe drains with 15 and 30 m spacing were installed in farmers’ fields in coastal lowlands of Kerala, India, at Kuttanad. Soil conditions improved within 2 years after the introduction of the subsurface drainage and significantly improved the crop yield. Data collected over a period of 14 years, showed a yield increase of 1.1 t/ha (43%) compared to non-drained areas. An economic analysis indicated that subsurface drainage is feasible with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.45, an internal rate of return of 47% and a net present value of Rs 5.17 million. The poor financial status of the farmers, however, is the main constraint for the large-scale adoption of the comparatively capital-intensive subsurface drainage systems in the acid sulphate soils of Kerala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potentially toxic metals (PTMs) contamination in the soil poses a serious danger to people's health by direct or indirect exposure, and generally it occurs by consuming food grown in these soils. The present study assessed the pollution levels and risk to human health upon sustained exposure to PTM concentrations in the area's centuries-old glass industry clusters of the city of Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Soil sampling (0–15 cm) was done in farmers' fields within a 1 km radius of six industrial clusters. Various environmental (geo-accumulation index, contamination factor, pollution load index, enrichment factor, and ecological risk index) and health risk indices (hazard quotient, carcinogenic risk) were computed to assess the extent of damage caused to the environment and the threat to human health. Results show that the mean concentrations of Cu (33 mg kg−1), Zn (82.5 mg kg−1), and Cr (15.3 mg kg−1) were at safe levels, whereas the levels of Pb, Ni, and Cd exceeded their respective threshold limits. A majority of samples (88%) showed considerable ecological risk due to the co-contamination of these six PTMs. Health risk assessment indicated tolerable cancer and non-cancer risk in both adults and children for all PTMs, except Ni, where adults were exposed to potential threat of cancer. Pearson's correlation study revealed a significant positive correlation between all six metal pairs and conducting principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed the common source of metal pollution. The PC score ranked different sites from highest to lowest according to PTM loads that help to establish the location of the source. Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped different sites into the same cluster based on similarity in PTMs load, i.e., low, medium, and high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is the primary source of income in the Sub-Himalayan Jalpaiguri District; therefore, identifying the optimal use of existing agricultural land is crucial. The primary objective of this study is to identify potential agricultural sites in the Jalpaiguri District for the sustainable development of the region. About eleven parameters have been considered using the multi-influencing technique in combination with remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system to delineate and model potential agriculture sites. The final agriculture suitability map was created using the 'Weighted Overlay technique,' and the final output can be categorized into five classes, i.e., highly suitability (424.3 km2), moderately suitability (1191.8 km2), marginally suitable (1141.4 km2), currently not suitable (567.1 km2), and permanently not suitable (60.8 km2). Besides, the results have been thoroughly verified using Google Earth images, in comparison with Landsat 8 output, and field visits using GPS to increase the reliability of the results. The finding reveals potential outcomes for agricultural activity; however, building a sustainable management strategy and resilient farming practices should be adopted to boost the region's agricultural output. Farmers, regional planners, and government officials can use the current agriculture suitability map to make comprehensive judgments for the region, such as determining the potential for agriculture sites, improving agricultural growth, and promoting self-reliant local economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent to which climate change will result in insurable and uninsurable losses for farmers in India. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns may increase the volatility of farmers' yields, leading to rising but insurable risk. These changes may also reduce the expected yield in an 'average year', causing uninsurable reductions in the returns to farming. We use a multi-run climate model to predict the future distribution of potential yields at the district level for sixteen major crops. For the average district, we project a sharp decline in expected agricultural revenue, but small shifts in volatility. This is because weather draws resulting in extremely low agricultural returns—what had once been 1-in-100-year events—are predicted to become the norm by the end of the century. Our projections therefore imply substantial uninsurable losses from the changing climate for Indian farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaponic system in greenhouses which can recycle and reuse the water and nutrients is gaining importance across the world to counter the uncertainties due to weather fluctuations. However, there is a slow pace of growth in aquaculture practices around the globe in general and India in particular. There are many barriers to adopt the aquaponic culture. In this study an analysis of the barriers for aquaponics culture in Indian context during the COVID-19 period is presented. Literature review and interactions with various stakeholders help to find out the list of potential factors while gauging the success of their prospective aquaponics project. The "best-worst" methodology (BWM) is employed for ranking of barriers, whereas categorizing of barriers is carried out with the help of fuzzy DEMATEL. Furthermore, the results of this research work are of great value to corporations or start-up companies looking to invest in this technology as well as to farmers who wish to adopt this farming technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly changing climatic conditions are adversely impacting the Indian agricultural sector. Farmers are frequently seen adopting several adaptation measures, which are neither equally efficient nor mutually exclusive. Based on the primary data collected from 300 farming households of the Indian Eastern Himalayan foothills, the present study attempts to examine the efficiency of local farmers' adaptation by developing indices combining the feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of the adaptation measures with the scale of actual adoption. Further, by employing multiple linear regression, the study analyzes the internal (psychological) and external (physical and socio-economic) factors influencing higher scores of these indices. Results show that local farmers are well aware of climate change and are responding through implementing at least one and up to seven adaptation measures. Farmers preferred agroforestry, a shift from cereals to low water-intensive commercials, irrigation, and intensification of winter crops as the most efficient. There was, however, a misalignment between the perceived efficiency of adaptation measures and their scale of adoption. Farmers' perceptions of pest infestation, satisfaction with farming, soil characteristics, farm size, remittances, and access to credit were found to be positively and significantly influencing the adaptation indices, while open-mindedness toward changing farming practices and crop-raiding by elephants were found to be negatively and significantly associated with adaptation indices. Lastly, the study made relevant recommendations for improving farmers' efficiency in adopting appropriate adaptation measures and strengthening the "State Action Plan on Climate Change". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Phelps' notions of 'corporatism' and 'flourishing' from the point of view of India's growth experience since independence in 1947 up to 1990s when economic reform was initiated. It looks at two pre-reform Indian stories, those of agriculture sector and industrial sector, which provide a developing country color to Phelps' analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We measure and compare agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components (efficiency and technical change) in China and India and test the TFP series for the existence of structural breaks relating the evolution of TFP to policy milestones. Our results show that agricultural TFP growth accelerates in China after 1979 and in India after 1974, although China’s agricultural sector clearly outperforms India’s. The main explanation of these differentials is that agricultural growth in China benefited from more fundamental institutional and policy reforms in agriculture than India. There is some evidence that the transformation of industry in China was also important for agricultural TFP growth. Manufacture growth absorbed labor and reduced employment in agriculture, creating incentives for capital investment and technical change that kept output per worker in agriculture growing at high rates. Fewer changes in agricultural policies and in the dynamics of manufacturing in India resulted in slower growth in agricultural productivity, despite policy changes that accelerated economic growth in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plantation as a fusion of rural industry and commercial agriculture has become a shorthand for the the intensification of land-use, circulation of commodities, and the organization of labor concomitant with the modern world. While not the only place where plantations existed, the Atlantic is the context in which most archaeological research has taken place leaving untested certain assumptions about the development of the plantation. and the regions which informed its varied materializations in the modern world. By extending the the methods and approaches employed by archaeologists studying plantations to South India, we decenter plantation narratives and show how Indian Ocean commercial agriculture and rural industry also enabled the modern world. This article reports on results from the first phase of the Colonial Tharangambadi Archaeological Survey (CTAS). The goal of CTAS was to document changing settlement patterns, settlement organization, and material assemblage through a systematic landscape survey in the former Danish colonial enclave, Tranquebar (Tharangambadi). Specifically, we documented one South Indian settlement formation devoted to commercial agriculture called "gardens," which has origins in the sixth century CE, or earlier, and how they were used outside the town's walls in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We argue that from historically distinctive agrarian facilities geared to commercial production, these plantation-like rural industries developed quite broadly using vulnerable labor to produce plant commodities in high volume for international markets. The particularities of plantation studies are enriched by considerations of parallel developments under similar conditions, as illustrated by India's lesser-known Danish colony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results are presented of complex investigation of clouds in India which were seeded with a glaciogenic reagent from the aircraft. The seeding effect was assessed by the comparison of radar characteristics of the seeded clouds with the characteristics of clouds within the radar field of view. The maximum reflectivity increase in the seeded clouds in comparison with clouds in the natural cycle, an increase in the precipitation flux and specific mass of precipitated hail are observed. The merging of seeded clouds was observed during the study. It is shown that this process affects cloud characteristics resulting in the significant (by several times) increase in the precipitation flux. The measurements of electric discharges registered by the lightning detection network demonstrated that there were no lightning strikes in the seeded clouds, although the calculations indicated an increase in the electric activity of the clouds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate trends and socio-economic determinants of suicide in India over the period of 2001-2013.Method: Suicide rates between 2001 and 2013 were calculated using suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and census data provided by Census of India, stratified by sex, age group, and geographical region, to investigate trends in suicide over the study period. Multilevel negative binomial regression models were specified to investigate associations between state-level indicators of economic development, education, employment and religious factors and sex-specific suicide rates.Results: Male suicide rates remained relatively steady (~ 14 per 100,000) while female suicide rates decreased over the study period (9 to 7 per 100,000). The age group of 45-59 years had the highest suicide rate among males while the age group of 15-29 years had the highest suicide rate among females. On average, higher male and female suicide rates were observed in states with: higher levels of development, higher levels of agricultural employment, higher levels of literacy, and higher proportions of people identifying with Hinduism. Higher male suicide rates were also observed in states with higher levels of unemployment.Conclusion: The process of modernization might be contributing towards higher suicide risk in more developed parts of India. Also, increase in farmer suicides since economic liberalization might be contributing towards higher suicide rates among more agricultural regions. Furthermore, ancient sanctions towards religious suicide are possibly still influencing modern Hindu suicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is an effort to develop an appraisal of the hydrogeochemical regime for the aquifers of Dhekiajuli, Sonitpur district, Assam, which is imperative considering: (i) excessive use of groundwater for irrigation; (ii) reported high arsenic (As) contamination; (iii) application of fertilizer is an inevitable process undergoing in this region to achieve higher yield owing to deteriorating water quality; and (iv) study area being the location of many tea estates of Assam, that export tea in many foreign countries. The highest As concentration of 44.39 µg/L was detected in this study (Bachasimalu and Sitalmari region), implying high As-contaminated aquifers being used for drinking and irrigation purposes in the area. The relative abundance pattern of major cations and anions was in the order of Na > Mg > Ca > K and HCO > Cl > SO , respectively. Majority of the samples belong to Na-K-Cl-HCO and mixed water type. Closer inspection of Piper plot reveals that a higher As value (>40 µg/L) was prevalent in HCO water type. Results of hydrogeochemical plots suggest silicate and carbonate weathering, ion exchange and anthropogenic activities to be the dominant processes governing groundwater contamination, including As which is further supported from PCA loadings. The Singri area to the east of the affected areas and adjacent to the Brahmaputra River has oxic aquifers owing to the absence of mass deposition of younger sediments, while reducing conditions prevails in the Bachasimalu and Sitalmari region. High positive correlation between As and Fe ( r = 0.83**) and a negative correlation between ORP and Fe ( r = −0.68**) further add that Fe (hydr)oxides are the direct source of As release in the affected region, the mechanism being reductive hydrolysis of such (hydr)oxides. The study implies that although groundwater is suitable for irrigation use, there is a high probability of As getting into the food chain through tea and other edible plants irrigated with As-contaminated water; thus, the area has a maximum probability of facing health hazards caused by As-contaminated groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ancient civilizations in India, China, Egypt and Mesopotamia have flourished due to large rivers that provided water for agriculture over millennia. Egypt was able to grow well because of the Nile. Similarly, Mesopotamia had two rivers namely the Tigris and the Euphrates. Likewise, India and China have several great rivers that continue to support the agrarian culture. This article discusses the sacred significance of rivers in the ancient and contemporary Indian culture with examples from popular Hindu scriptures. It also presents the ancient model of an eco-friendly check dam and its modern application with potential to mitigate future water-related problems across the drylands of India and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Kali-Hindon is a watershed in the most productive central Ganga plain of India. The whole area is a fertile track with sugarcane being the principal crop. Systematic sampling was carried out to assess the source of dissolved ions, impact of sugar factories and the quality of groundwater. Thirty-six samples were collected covering an area of 395 km2. The quality of groundwater is suitable for irrigational purposes but is rich in SO4 which is not best for human consumption. Graphical treatment of major ion chemistry helps identify six chemical types of groundwater. All possible species such as Na–Cl, K–Cl, Na–HCO3, Na–SO4, Ca–HCO3, Mg–HCO3, Ca–SO4 and Mg–SO4 are likely to occur in the groundwater system. The most conspicuous change in chemistry of groundwater is relative enrichment of SO4. The interpretation of data reveals that SO4 has not been acquired through water–rock interaction. The source of SO4 is anthropogenic. Sugar factories alone are responsible for this potential environmental hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption behaviour of cadmium (Cd) in soils is an important process which exerts a major influence on its uptake by plant roots. Thirteen soils from various parts of India (tropical region), their pH ranging from 4.2 to 8.4, were subjected to Cd treatment at various concentrations (1 to 100 mg ml-1) and equilibrated at room temperature (25 +/- 1 deg. C). The Cd adsorbed by each soil was calculated as the difference between the amount of Cd present in the solution initially and that remaining after equilibration. Results indicated that the adsorption capacity of the soils for Cd increased with an increase in the pH or alkalinity of the soils. The rate of adsorption was, however,found to decrease with increased pH. All the 13 soils used in this study followed linear and Freundlich adsorption isotherms with highly significant positive correlations (r). The neutral and alkaline soilsalso followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, the adsorption maxima being lowest for the neutral soil and highest for the alkaline soil. The adsorption data, in general, indicated that Cd was in a fixed form at higher pH levels. The results are generally similar to those of the temperate regions; however, Cd adsorption capacity of tropical vertisols was comparatively higher than those of temperate vertisols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]