Daily Current Capsules 04^th November 2020

Prelims Factoids
NFL registers steep growth in sale of single super phosphate and Bentonite Sulphur
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about non urea fertilizers and its benefits)
What's the NEWS

• National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) is encouraging farmers to also use non-urea fertilizers like DAP, MoP, NPK and Sulphur Based fertilizers.
• With these efforts, the company has registered growth in sale of all non-urea fertilizers during the first seven months of the current financial year.

• The sale of sulphur based fertilizers of company - Bentonite Sulphur has registered a growth of 237% and single super phosphate (SSP) has registered growth of 133%
• NFL markets Urea, DAP, MoP, NPKs, APS, Compost, SSP and Bentonite Sulphur besides many strains of bio-fertilizers to provide all types of fertilizers to farmers

Benefits of using non-urea fertilizers

• It is important to encourage use of all types of fertilizers to provide balanced nutrition to soil
• Sulphur is essential to maximizing plant growth and yield.
• As the fourth most important nutrient, Sulphur is also required for nitrogen use efficiency.
• After the Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potash (K), Sulphur (S) is the 4th major plant nutrient required and deficiency of sulphur is widespread in Indian Soils.
• It is required for crops like Oilseeds, Pulses, Vegetables, Sugarcane, Paddy, Horticulture crops etc.
• Sulphur is replenished in soil mainly through Bentonite Sulphur and SSP.
• While Bentonite Sulphur contains 90% Sulphur, SSP contains 11% sulphur, 16% P2O5 and 21% Calcium.

Miscellaneous
Fortification of Rice & its distribution through Public Distribution System

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Scheme on Fortification of Rice & its distribution through Public Distribution System) + Mains ( GS II government interventions in various sectors + GS III inclusive development)
What's the NEWS

• To initiate the process of taking the country towards nutritional security, Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) has been running a "Centrally Sponsored Pilot Scheme on Fortification of Rice & its distribution through Public Distribution System

Know! more about the scheme

• The Pilot Scheme has been approved for a period of three years beginning 2019-2020 with a total budget outlay of Rs.174.6 Crore.
• Fifteen State Governments have identified their respective districts (1 district per state) for implementing the Pilot Scheme.
• Already 5 states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh have started the distribution of fortified rice in their respective identified districts.
• FCI has been asked to come up with a comprehensive plan for procurement and distribution of fortified rice in all the Districts of the country under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) & Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme from 2021-2022.
• Special focus would be placed on supplying fortified rice to the 112 specially identified Aspirational Districts of the country.
• fortified rice in a phased manner from 2021-2022 onwards.

Know! about Fortification

• Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.
• Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying of the surface of ordinary rice grains in several layers with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.
• Rice kernels can be fortified with several micronutrients, such as iron, folic acid and other B-complex vitamins, vitamin A and zinc.
• A staple food, or simply a staple, is a food that is consumed regularly and provides an important proportion of the energy (calories) and nutrient requirements.
• Its preparation is variable in different contexts and is closely linked to the most available foods in each setting.

Science and Technology
NCAER Report on "Estimating the economic benefits of Investment in Monsoon Mission and High Performance Computing Facilities

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NCAER report highlights+ about National Monsoon Mission+ Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa
What's the NEWS

• India's investment of nearly 1,000 Crores in the National Monsoon Mission and High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities would provide benefits worth rupees 50 thousand Crores to nearly 1.07 Crore below poverty line (BPL) agricultural households and 53 Lakh BPL fisher-folk households in the country.
• This has been affirmed by a report by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which is an independent, not for profit, economic policy research and think tank based in New Delhi.
• The NCAER report refers to economic benefits as direct monetary gains to crop farmers, livestock rearers, and fishermen in the country.

Report highlights

• NCAER study was based on a face-to-face survey of 6,098 respondents including 3,965 crop farmers, 757 marine fishermen, and 1,376 livestock owners.
• Along with this, responses from 2 lakh farmers were also collected through interactive voice response system ( IVRS) to validate the findings of the face-to-face survey.
• IVRS is a technology that allows computers to interact with humans through the use of voice and input via keyboard.
• Data for both pre- and post-monsoon mission periods was incorporated which enabled analysis of the production and yield of major crops before and after the implementation of the National Monsoon Mission (which happened in 2015).
• A total of 173 districts (of the total 732 districts in India) across 16 states (of the total 29) were considered for the study to appropriately represent agro-climatic zones, rain-fed areas, coverage of major crops, and incidence of extreme weather events in the country.

National Monsoon Mission

• The National Monsoon Mission was launched by MoES in 2012 with an aim to develop a state-of-the-art, dynamic monsoon prediction system for short, medium, and long-range forecasts.
• The augmentation of the National Monsoon Mission with High-performance Computing facilities has helped the country in achieving a paradigm shift in weather and climate modeling for operational weather forecasts.
• The successful development of a Global Ensemble Forecast System for short and medium-range prediction at 12 kilometers and its operationalization in 2018 was made possible due to National Monsoon Mission and augmentation of the High-performance computing facilities from 1PetaFlop to 10PetaFlop.

Agro-climatic zone

• Agro-climatic zone refers to a geographical area with similar soil type, rainfall, temperature, and water availability.
• India is divided into 15 major agro-climatic zones, of which 10 zones that experience all monsoon events ranging from drought to floods have been covered by the NCAER study.
• By prioritising areas which were rain-fed, and important for livestock-based interventions, a total of 173 districts were chosen for the survey.
• Over 70 percent of all major crops grown in India were covered under the purview of the study. These include both kharif and rabi.

Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS)

• India Meteorological Department (IMD) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) provides district-level agro-meteorological advisories to farmers through 130 agro-met field units to nearly 40 million farmers under ‘Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS)' twice a week for all the districts in the country.
• These advisories are communicated to farmers via mobile SMS, apps such as Meghdhoot, on IMD website, Kisan Portal, and conventional media such as television, radio, and newspapers.
• Farmers use these advisories for critical farm operations like management of sowing, changing crop variety, spraying pesticides for disease control and managing irrigation etc.
• The survey also revealed that every woman from a fishing household included in the survey wanted to know the ocean state forecast provided by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) through messaging services on an everyday basis.

Prelims Factoids
Shri Shakti Challenge

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Shri Shakti Challenge)
What's the NEWS

• Six women led startups have won COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge organized by MyGov in collaboration with UN Women.

Know! about the challenge

• With an objective to encourage and involve women led startups to come up with innovative solutions that can help in the fight against COVID19 or solve problems that impact a large number of women, MyGov in collaboration with UN Women, launched the COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge in April 2020.
• This was a unique challenge hosted on the Innovate platform of MyGov that called for applications from women led startups as well as startups who have solutions that address issues faced by a larger number of women.
• The Challenge was implemented in two stages: Ideation stage and Proof of Concept (PoC) Stage.

Prelims Factoids
Ganga Utsav

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Ganga Utsav)
What's the NEWS

• Ganga Utsav is a 3 - day festival celebrating river Ganga.
• The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) had been celebrating the day of declaration of river Ganga as ‘National River' on 4th November of every year with an objective to promote stakeholder engagement and ensure public participation under aegis of Ganga Knowledge Center.

Know! about the Utsav

• The utsav celebrates mystical and cultural river Ganga through storytelling, folklores, dialogues with eminent personalities, quizzes, displaying traditional artforms, dance & music performance by renowned artists, photo galleries and exhibitions and much more.
• Celebrating the glory of holy river Ganga, this year the utsav will also appreciate living & practised cultural richness along river Ganga.

Know! about NMCG

• National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) - NMCG, an Authority constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 is engaged in implementing the ‘Namami Gange Programme', which is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme' by the Union Government in June 2014 to accomplish the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation, and rejuvenation of the National River Ganga.

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