Farm typology of smallholders integrated farming systems in Southern Coastal Plains of Kerala, India

Adoption of an integrated farming system (IFS) is essential to achieve food and nutritional security in small and marginal holdings. Assessment of IFS to know the resource availability and socio-economic condition of the farm household, farm typology plays a critical role. In this regard, a sample survey of 200 marginal households practicing mixed crop-livestock agriculture was conducted during 2018–2019 at Southern Coastal Plains, which occupies 19,344 ha in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, India. Farming system typology using multivariate statistical techniques of principal component analysis and cluster analysis characterized the diverse farm households coexisting within distinct homogenous farm types. Farming system typology identified four distinct farm types viz. resource constrained type-1 households with small land owned, high abundance of poultry, very low on-farm income, constituted 46.5%; resource endowed type-2 households oriented around fruit and vegetable, plantation crop, with a moderate abundance of large ruminant and poultry, high on-farm income, constituted 12.5%; resource endowed type-3 household oriented around food grain, extensive use of farm machinery, with a moderate abundance of large ruminant, low on-farm income, constituted 21.5%; and resource endowed type-4 household oriented around fodder, with high abundance of large ruminant, medium on-farm income, constituted 19.5% of sampled households. Constraint analysis using constraint severity index assessed the severity of constraints in food grain, horticulture, livestock, complementary and supplementary enterprises in each farm type, which allowed targeted farming systems interventions to be envisaged to overcome soil health problems, crops and animal production constraints. Farming system typology together with constraint analysis are therefore suggested as a practical framework capable of identifying type-specific farm households for targeted farming systems interventions.

Exploitation of Beach Sand Minerals in the Offshore Areas – Legal perspective in the light of MMDR Act, 1957 and OAMDR Act, 2002

Beach Sand Minerals (BSM) form by weathering and erosion of the rocks in the hinterland which are liberated, disintegrate by various processes and, are transportation by the streams to the sites of deposition (coastal plains). These minerals get concentrated along the coastal areas due to constant winnowing by wave action. It is well documented that sea level changes have occurred along the coastal areas at different points of time whose signatures on land can be seen in the form of palaeo-strandline occurring up to 15-20 km from the present day coast. On a similar analogy and in view of bathymetric profile of the sea floor, BSM deposits are expected in the offshore areas as well, in continuity to onshore deposits, which possibly are the submerged onshore deposits of the past. Mineral Concessions in respect of onshore BSM deposits are governed with the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act, 1957 and those in the offshore are governed as per the Offshore Areas Mineral Development and Regulation (OAMDR) Act, 2002 and the rules thereunder respectively. This paper deals with various provisions of these Acts and recent policies of the Government to harmonize mineral concession in offshore areas in line with the onshore BSM deposits.

On chronostratigraphic calibration using Bryozoa: suggestions from two Paleogene case studies

The bryozoan species present in each Paleocene and Eocene chronostratigraphic unit of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains in North America, and the Paris Basin in France are analysed. The comparison between species exclusive to each unit considered (EX), non-exclusive species, but appearing for the first (FA) or last time (LA), species existing before and after the unit considered (BA), and, finally, the total number of species present (T), shows the chronostratigraphic discriminating value of this fauna within the Paleogene. The same analysis was previously applied to bryozoan Paleocene and Eocene families and genera, according to the inormation. It is also interesting to note the significant renewal of bryozoan fauna in both basins during the Middle Eocene.

Sea Breeze Geoengineering to Increase Rainfall over the Arabian Red Sea Coastal Plains

The Red Sea (RS) has a high evaporation rate, exceeding 2 m of water per year. The water vapor is transported from the shorelines by sea breezes as far as 200 km landward. Relative humidity in the vicinity of the RS exceeds 80% in summer. Nevertheless, precipitation is scarce in most of the Arabian RS coastal plain. In this work we use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional model to assess how deliberate changes (geoengineering) in the surface albedo or convertion of bare land to wide-leaf forests over a vast coastal plain region affect precipitation over the Arabian RS coast. Our simulations show that geoengineering of land surface characteristics perturbs coastal circulation, alters temperature, moisture, and momentum exchange between the land surface and atmosphere, changes the breeze intensity, cloud cover, and eventually the amount of precipitation. We find that extended afforestation and increased surface albedo are not effective in triggering rainfall over the RS coastal plains. Conversely, decreasing surface albedo to 0.2 assuming installation of solar panels over the coastal plains, increases surface air temperature by 1-2 K, strengthens horizontal surface temperature differences between sea and land, intensifies breezes, increases water vapor mixing ratio in the boundary layer above 3 km by about 0.5 gkg−1, enhances vertical mixing within the Planetary Boundary Layer, and generates 1.5 Gt of extra rain water, equivalent to the annual consumption of five million people. Thus, this form of regional land-surface geoengineering, along with advanced methods of collection and underground storage of freshwater, provides a feasible solution to mitigation of the existing water crisis the arid coastal regions.