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09 10 19

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NO. TOPICS

THE HINDU

PAGE NO.

1 Stirring up the truth about ZBNF 10

2 Rethinking water management issues 10

3 Canadian-American, two Swiss stargazers win Physics Nobel 01

4 Trio wins medicine Nobel Prize 14

5 Rural children breastfed more: survey 09

Dated: 09.Oct.2019 DNS Notes

Title 1. Stirring up the truth about ZBNF (The Hindu, Page 10)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper III – Indian Economy

Theme Critique of Zero Budget Natural Farming

Highlights Context

According to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data, almost 70% of agricultural households

spend more than they earn and more than half of all farmers are in debt. Against this backdrop, this year‟s budget document and the Economic Survey 2018-19 focused

on adoption of „Zero Budget Natural Farming‟ (ZBNF) in order to double the farmers‟ income by the end of 2022.

However, a number of concerns have been raised with respect to the adoption of Zero Budget

Natural Farming (ZBNF). Some of the critics have pointed out that the Government's policy of inclusion of ZBNF is unwise and imprudent. In this regard, let us understand as to whether the

ZBNF can indeed emerge as a game changer for doubling the farmers' income.

What is ZBNF? It is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to

various states in India. It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern

Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved. The agricultural practices under ZBNF was put forward by Mr. Subhash Palekar.

The word „budget‟ refers to credit and expenses, thus the phrase "Zero Budget" means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs. "Natural farming"

means farming with Nature and without chemicals.

Basic Premise and Pillars of ZNBF

Basic Premise: The ZBNF is based on a premise that the soil has all the necessary nutrients and hence advocates against the application of chemical fertilisers. To make the soil nutrients

available to the plants, it advocates the intermediation of microorganisms. It also advocates that the all the necessary agricultural inputs can be procured from the farms without the need to buy

them from the market and thus farmer would not incur any additional costs.

The Four Pillars of ZBNF are as given below: Jivamrita/jeevamrutha: It is a fermented microbial culture prepared using cow dung and

urine. It provides nutrients to the soil, but most importantly, acts as a catalytic agent that promotes the activity of microorganisms in the soil, as well as increases earthworm activity;

Bijamrita/beejamrutha: Protection of the young roots from various diseases through cow

dung and urine. Mulching: Conservation of the soil moisture by covering the top layer of the soil with dried

biomass, organic manure etc. This would also enhance fertility of the soil. Moisture: It challenges the basic notion that plants need more amount of water and instead

focuses on conservation of soil moisture and promoting less irrigation.

Other important pillars are- Intercropping, Rain water harvesting, Revival of the soils through earthworms etc.

Government's Initiatives to promote ZBNF

The Centre has revised the norms for the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana- Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) and the

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana. Under the revised guidelines, both Centrally-sponsored

schemes now allow States to use their funds to promote the ZBNF, vedic farming, natural farming, cow farming and a host of other traditional methods.

Benefits:

Reduce the input costs which have been responsible for present agrarian distress.

Reduce the dependence of the farmers on the credit which has been responsible for the debt trap.

Enhancement in the soil fertility. Optimum utilisation of water and reduce water consumption (85%)

Promote diversification of the agriculture- towards other crops and towards livestock rearing. This can also lead to reduction in the risks and enhance non-farm income.


Enhance the farmers‟ income in the long term.

Challenges and Concerns

Incurs costs: The ZBNF is not essential "Zero Budget" since some of the inputs used in the

agricultural practices need to be purchased. Apart from that, it does not acknowledge other agricultural inputs which may have implicit cost such as the imputed value of family labour,

imputed rent of the owned land, costs of maintaining cows, electricity cost etc. Lack of Scientific Validation: According to the some of the sources, the yields in ZBNF are

30% lower. Further, there are no Independent and Scientific studies to validate the claim that

the yields through the ZBNF are much higher. Presently, a trial is underway at the G.B. Pant University of agriculture, but its results will be available only after 5 years.

Unscientific Premise: The ZBNF is considered to be unscientific because it does not acknowledge that the deficiencies in the Indian soils and erroneously assumes that the soils

have all the necessary ingredients which are needed for the growth of plants. Indian soils are considered to have lower amount of essential nutrients such as Nitrogen, phosphorus and

Potassium which are quite essential for the enhanced yield. Indian soils are also poor in

micronutrients such as Zinc, Iron, Manganese, copper etc. In some regions of the country, the soils are either acidic or saline and in some regions, the fertility of the soil has reduced due to

heavy metal pollution from industrial or municipal wastes. These deficiencies in the Indian Soils can be tackled only through scientific, balanced and

moderate application of chemical fertilisers. The ZBNF fails to understand that there cannot be

"One-Size Fits All" approach to tackle deficiencies in Indian Soils. Flawed Nutrient Management: The ZBNF believes that plants take obtain 98.5% of the

nutrients from the air and the remaining 1.5% from the Soil. In order to make the soil nutrients available to the plants, it advocates the Jivamrita/jeevamrutha which is a fermented microbial

culture prepared using cow dung and urine.

The Jivamrit prescription is essentially the application of 10 kg of cow dung and 10 litres of cow urine per acre per month. For a five-month season, this means 50 kg of cow dung and 50 litres

of cow urine. Given nitrogen content of 0.5% in cow dung and 1% in cow urine, this translates to just about 750 g of nitrogen per acre per season. This is totally inadequate considering the

nitrogen requirements of Indian soils. Cultural Chauvinism: The ZBNF believes that these agricultural practices would lead to the

spiritual upliftment of the farmers. It believes that its practitioners will stop drinking, gambling,

lying, eating non-vegetarian food and wasting resources. It erroneously focuses on Indigenous cows and advocates against the cross-bed cows and believes that such a practise would

conserve the Indigenous breeds.

Way Forward

We need to realise that Indian Soils have got degraded over a period of time and hence doubling of farmers' income must focus on enhancing the fertility of soils. Since Soils in the different

regions in India are facing different problems , there cannot be a "One-Size Fits All" approach. We need location-specific interventions towards balanced application of fertilisers and integrated

nutrient management. While we try to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers in some locations, we should be open to

increasing their use in other locations. But such a comprehensive approach requires a strong

embrace of scientific temper and a firm rejection of anti-science postures. NITI Aayog has been among the foremost promoters of ZBNF method. However, its experts

have also warned that multi-location studies are needed to scientifically validate the long-term impact and viability of the model before it can be scaled up and promoted country-wide.


Personal

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Title 2. Rethinking water management issues (The Hindu, Page 10)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper III- Environment

Theme India‟s Management of Water Resources

Highlights Context:

This article provides a critique of the Government's Strategy of Management of Water

Resources as enunciated in the "Strategy For New India @ 75" released by NITI Aayog in December 2018. It highlights that strategic planning can succeed only if satisfies three

essential requirements. One, acknowledge and analyse past failures; two, suggest realistic and implementable goals; and three, delineate the roles and responsibilities of all entities to avoid

confusion and fix accountability. The Government's strategy on management of water

resources fails on incorporate all these 3 essential requirements.

Details Fails to Learn from Past Failures and Mistakes:

Integrated Basin Management: The strategy document has highlighted the need to adopt integrated river basin management approach by setting up of river basin organisations in order

to mitigate Inter-State conflicts and achieve equitable distribution of water. The concept of

Integrated Basin Management is quite old and has been provided under the River Boards Act, 1956. It enables the Union Government to create Boards for Interstate Rivers and river valleys

in consultation with State Governments. The objective of Boards is to advise on the inter-state basin to prepare development scheme and to prevent the emergence of conflicts. However, no

river board has been established under this act. The strategy document recommends the same

old idea without analysing the reasons as to why the Integrated basin management has not worked in India.

Water Resources Regulatory Authority: The Strategy document has highlighted the need to set up Water Resources Regulatory Authority to regulate equitable distribution of water at

basin level, determine the distribution of entitlements for various categories of use and establish a tariff system for water charges. Maharashtra had established a water resources

regulatory authority in 2005. Inspite of setting up of such an authority, water management in

Maharashtra has not improved. The strategy document reiterates the same old idea without analysing the causes of failure of Water Resources Regulatory Authority in Maharashtra.

Fails to laydown realistic goals and targets: The Strategy document has laid down a number of goals and targets in order to improve the

water management in India which include providing adequate and safe piped water supply to

all citizens and livestock; providing irrigation to all farms; providing water to industries; ensuring continuous and clean flow in the “Ganga and other rivers along with their tributaries”.

The article highlights that these goals are over-ambitious and unrealistic since they cannot be met within the next 5 years.

Fails to Delineate Roles and Responsibilities:

The article highlights that the Strategy document has failed to delineate the roles and responsibilities of the Central and State Government agencies for the effective management of

water. For instance, it talks about encouraging industries to utilise recycled/treated water. But it fails to enunciate as to who would fulfil this role- would it Central Government or State

Government? Would it be Environment Ministry that would cancel licenses for not practising recycling? Or Would it be finance Ministry through tax incentives?

When roles and responsibilities are not well-defined, it leads to abdication of duties and lack of

accountability. Fails to provide clear cut solutions:

Ideas listed under „way forward‟ and „suggested reforms‟ do not say how any of these will come about. For example, there is no recommendation to amend the Easement Act, or to stop

subsidised/free electricity to farmers. On the contrary, the strategy recommends promoting

solar pumps. These are environmentally correct and ease the financial burden on electricity supply agencies. However, the free electricity provided by solar units will further encourage

unrestricted pumping of groundwater, and will further aggravate the problem of a steady decline of groundwater levels.

Fails to highlight the real constraints in Water Governance: The strategy document has given a number of recommendations without understanding the


constraints in implementing those recommendations. For instance, it highlights that the Ken-

Betwa River inter-linking project, the India-Nepal Pancheshwar project, and the Siang project in Northeast India need to be completed at the earliest.

However, it fails to realise that these projects have got delayed due to intervention of the

Judiciary on account of PILs. The document fails to come up with a plan to avoid the growing case of misuse of PILs.

Personal

Notes


Title 3. Canadian-American, two Swiss stargazers win Physics Nobel – (The Hindu, Page

01)

Syllabus Prelims: Science & technology

Theme 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics

Highlights The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics is shared among an American cosmologist, James Peebles and two Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz

1. Theoretical framework of physical cosmology James Peebles‟ contribution to modern cosmology (study of nature of universe itself)

includes

Prediction of shape of cosmic microwave background radiation Formation of primordial elements

Prediction of how structures in the universe like galaxies and cluster of galaxies are assembled and the importance of dark matter in shaping the

assembly of these structures in the universe.

Thus his theoretical framework has immensely contributed to the modern day

understanding of evolution of universe (big bang to present), its structure and how its contents are structured within it.

2. Discovery of 1st exoplanet

The Swiss astronomers have been awarded the Nobel for their discovery of the first

ever exoplanet orbit a star. Exoplanet 51 Pegasi was the 1st exoplanet discovered orbiting a sun-like star, about

50 light years away from earth in the constellation of Pegasus.

Till the time, search for exoplanets focused on pulsars (a dead star).

Thus it paved the way for a new method in our search for life beyond earth.

The Pegasi is a gas-giant of the size about half of Jupiter and is orbiting the star at a

distance of about 8 million km.

Background: Modern Cosmology

Evolution of universe: Big Bang to present

Modern day understanding of evolution of the universe says that the beginning of the universe was marked by a spectacular event called Big Bang.

Expanding Universe and Big Bang

Newtonian understanding was that universe was an infinite expanse of stars that are

static.

Hubble‟s law changed this understanding by stating that universe is expanding.

The Hubble‟s law showed that the universe has been expanding for billions of years

which means that in the past the matter in the universe must have been closer together and therefore denser than it is today.

This leads us to conclude that some sort of tremendous event caused ultradense

matter to begin the expansion that continues to the present day. This event is what is called the Big Bang that marks the creation of the universe.

Cosmic Microwave background Radiation

Immediately after the big bang, the universe was so hot that the thermonuclear

reactions (that are usually seen in stars today) happened everywhere in the universe

leading to formation of primodial elements, hydrogen and helium.

Peeble’s contribution in predicting CMB

Peebles predicted that this thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium atoms led to release of high-energy shortwave photons which is known to be cosmic background

radiation. As the universe expanded this radiation also expanded becoming long-wave

(microwave) which is why it is called cosmic microwave background radiation which

fills the entire space. Thus CMB is an evidence for expansion of universe. (question asked in prelims paper)

COBE Satellite

NASA launched Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite in 1990s which


confirmed CMB radiation.

Structure of the Universe

Peebles also contributed to predicting the structure of universe by studying the shapes of galaxies and galaxy clusters.

According to Einstein‟s general theory of relativity, any object with mass and density curves the space.

However the shape of galaxies (spiral) can only be explained by presence of some

unidentified matter that have densities which is known to be dark matter.

Background: Exoplanets What are exoplanets?

The search for alien life and habitable spaces beyond our star system is essentially

the objective of exoplanet exploration.

Planets outside our solar system are called exoplanets that are part of star systems.

As of today we have discovered about 4000 confirmed exoplanets.

Important Missions

NASA‟s Kepler and K2 missions.

ISRO‟s PARAS spectrograph at Mount Abu (PRL Advanced Radial velocity Abu Sky

Search Spectrograph)

Goldilock zone

A habitable zone or „goldilocks zone‟ is a region around a star at a distance where

liquid water could pool on a planetary surface and possibly support life.

Personal

Notes


Title 4. Trio wins medicine Nobel Prize – (The Hindu, Page 11)

Syllabus Prelims: Science & technology

Theme Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

Highlights Abstract

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine is awarded to William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe,

and Gregg Semenza for their groundbreaking discovery of how cells in the have evolved to sense and adapt to fluctuating oxygen levels.

Background

Basics

All activity of life requires energy as fuel.

The primary producers like plants, algae and some bacteria fuel their activities by

directly absorbing energy from the sun through photosynthesis. The secondary consumers including humans get their energy from chemical bonds

that are present in the food they consume.

In order to convert the energy present in the food to usable form of energy for all life

activities, the consumers have evolved a process called cellular respiration. In humans, the chemical bonds of sugars and food molecules (protein, fat etc) are

broken down in presence of oxygen in the mitochondria of the cell to release

energy needed for all life activities.

Fluctuating Oxygen Levels

Whenever the oxygen supply to the cells is reduced as a result of low oxygen levels in

the environment (high altitudes) or a defective RBC (RBCs carry oxygen to different cells in the body) as in case of anaemia, cells have adopted a mechanism to respond

to this fluctuating oxygen levels (a condition called hypoxia). The common method adopted by the body in low-oxygen conditions is to accelerate

the formation of erythropoietin hormone that is produced in the kidneys. The

erythropoietin hormone stimulates the production of RBCs which inturn harnesses

more oxygen. The gene that produces this hormone was found to be oxygen-sensitive and thus

appears or disappears in the cell.

Significance By understanding the process through which oxygen levels are regulated for cellular

respiration, specific strategies for treatment can be used in anaemia, cancer, strokes,

heart attacks (which involves death of cells) etc.

Cancer cells can be deprived of oxygen levels to kill them.


Personal

Notes


Title 5. Rural children breastfed more: survey (The Hindu, Page 09)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II- Issues related to Health

Theme About Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS)

Highlights Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), a cross-sectional, household survey covering

more than 1,20,000 children and adolescents (0-19 years) in both urban and rural areas across all

30 states of India, is being conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW),

Government of India in partnership with UNICEF.

It aims to assess the national prevalence of biological indicators (micronutrient deficiencies,

subclinical inflammation, and worm infestation) and prevalence of overweight/obesity, along with

information on body composition, cardio-metabolic risk muscular strength, and fitness.

Large surveys are significant means to collect data related to health and aid to observe and check

the progress on different indicators related to health.

Data

a) Malnutrition in Urban areas:

Malnutrition among children in urban India is characterised by relatively poor levels of

breastfeeding, higher prevalence of iron and Vitamin D deficiency as well as obesity.

Wealthier households in urban areas and sedentary lifestyle of children may also be

responsible for higher deficiency of Vitamin D in urban areas (19%) as compared to rural

areas (12%), though the study shows that 74% of children living in cities consume dairy

products as compared to 58% in rural areas.

b) Malnutrition in Rural areas:

Rural parts of the country see higher percentage of children suffering from stunting,

underweight and wasting and lower consumption of milk products.

Rural children lag in intake of zinc which causes diarrhoea, growth retardation, loss of

appetite and impaired immune function. Among children aged 1-4 years, zinc deficiency is

more common in rural areas (20%) compared to urban areas (16%).

Rural areas also witness higher prevalence of stunting (37% in rural versus 27% in

urban), underweight (36% in rural versus 26% in urban) and severe acute malnutrition

(34.7% in rural areas for children in 5-9 years versus 23.7% in urban areas and 27.4% in

urban areas for adolescents in 10-19 years versus 32.4% in rural areas).

c) Data on breastfeeding:

83% of children between 12 and 15 months continued to be breastfed, a higher

proportion of children in this age group residing in rural areas are breastfed (85%)

compared to children in urban areas (76%).

Breastfeeding is inversely proportional to household wealth and other factors influencing

this trend may include working mothers who have to travel long distances to reach their

workplace.

Because of these reasons, it also noted that rural children receive meals more frequently

in a day at 44% as compared to 37% of urban children.

d) Data on iron deficiency:

Children and adolescents residing in urban areas also have a higher (40.6%) prevalence

of iron deficiency compared to their rural counterparts (29%), which experts say is due to

a better performance of the government‟s health programmes in rural areas.

e) Data on obesity:

Children in urban areas are also overweight and obese as indicated by subscapular

skinfold thickness (SSFT) for their age.

While 14.5% of children in the age group of 5 to 9 years in cities had higher SSFT than

5.3% in rural areas, 10.4% of adolescents surveyed in urban areas in the age group of


10-19 had higher SSFT than 4.3% in rural areas.

Government initiatives

Malnutrition is a complex and multi-dimensional issue, affected mainly by a number of generic

factors including poverty, inadequate food consumption due to access and availability issues,

inequitable food distribution, improper maternal infant and child feeding and care practices,

inequity and gender imbalances, poor sanitary and environmental conditions; and restricted

access to quality health, education and social care services.

Ministry is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,

Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated

Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as direct targeted interventions to address the

problem of malnutrition in the country. All these schemes address one or other aspects related to

nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.

Further, the steps have been taken under the National Health Mission (NHM), a flagship

programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to address malnutrition inter alia, that

include promotion of appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices,

Anaemia Mukt Bharat, Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation, de-worming,

promotion of iodized salt, Vitamin-A supplementation, Mission Indradhanush to

ensure high coverage of vaccination in children, conducting intensified diarrhoea

control fortnights to control childhood diarrhoea, management of sick severely

malnourished children at Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers, monthly Village Health and

Nutrition Days, Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC) and Home Based Young Child care

(HBYC) programmes and Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram.

What needed?

The focus should be on- Extending and Strengthening the Primary care delivery mechanism which

will be one point centre for preventive, promotive and curative services. Community awareness for

the same in urban community can be generated through Jan Andolan, for improved service

delivery and Outreach.

Unified approaches need to be supported by and coordinated with other Non-Health sectors such

as-Housing and Urban Development, Environment, Road transport, Education, Water and

Sanitation, as well as CSRs, NGOs, Development partners and experts.

Public health thrust should be on food & nutrition, NCDs, mental health, sanitation, clean drinking

water, vector control, etc. Moreover, since one size doesn‟t fit all- disruptive models (similar to few


NGOs and ULBs described earlier) according to demographic and cultural variations of all States

should be explored so that all citizens enjoy health, nutrition and wellbeing.

Personal Notes

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