• Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change addressed the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15)of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Cote d’Ivoire (Western Africa).
• COP 15 is a key moment in the fight against desertification, land degradation and drought.
• It will build on the findings of the second edition of the Global Land Outlook and offer a concrete response to the interconnected challenges of land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss.
• Drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment are among the top items on the Conference agenda.
• Theme: ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity’

Context:

Recently, the Punjab government announced Rs 1,500 incentive per acre for farmers opting for Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR).

About direct seeding of rice

• Here, the pre-germinated seeds are directly drilled into the field by a tractor-powered machine.
• There is no nursery preparation or transplantation involved in this method. Farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.

Advantage of DSR:

• Water savings. The first irrigation (apart from the pre-sowing rauni) under DSR is necessary only 21 days after sowing. This is unlike in transplanted paddy, where watering has to be done practically daily to ensure submerged/flooded conditions in the first three weeks.
• Less Labour. About three labourers are required to transplant one acre of paddy at almost Rs 2,400 per acre.
• The cost of herbicides under DSR will not exceed Rs 2,000 per acre.
• Reduce methane emissions due to a shorter flooding period and decreased soil disturbance compared to transplanting rice seedlings.

Limitations:

• Non-availability of herbicides.
• The seed requirement for DSR is also high,8-10 kg/acre, compared to 4-5 kg/acre in transplanting.
• Further, laser land levelling is compulsory in DSR. This is not so in transplanting.
• The sowing needs to be done timely so that the plants have come out properly before the monsoon rains arrive.

Key points:

• The United Nations observed 10th May 2022, the second International Day of Argania.
• This celebration crowns the efforts of the Kingdom of Morocco in promoting the Argan tree as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity and an ancestral source of resilient and sustainable development.
• The day will be celebrated this year under the theme “The Argan tree, symbol of resilience” and will serve to raise international awareness around the tree, its ecosystem, and the important position it holds in Moroccan culture and heritage.

Facts:

• Reliance Industries become the first Indian company to record annual revenue of more than a whopping $100 billion.
• The company has recorded a 22.5% rise in net profit for the quarter ended March 2022.
• Reliance has recorded strong growth in retail, digital services, and the oil & gas business.
• The company has also reported the highest-ever quarterly EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of Rs 33,968 crores (28% up) year-on-year

• According to the portal, total outstanding dues of electricity distribution companies to power producers rose by 4.04 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,21,765 crore (Rs 1.21 trillion) in May 2022.
• DISCOMs owed a total of Rs 1,17,026 crore to power generation firms in May 2021.
• PRAAPTI stands for- Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators.
• The PRAAPTI portal was launched in May 2018 to bring transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms.

About Pantanal wetland:

• The world’s largest wetland, known as the Pantanal, in South America is at risk of collapse.
• This is due to a series of local and seemingly minor decisions that fail to account for their cumulative impact on one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems.
• It is also the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
• It is fed through the Paraguay River and tributaries.
• It is designated a National Heritage by the Brazilian Constitution and a restricted-use region whose use should be ecologically sustainable.

A controversy has erupted over a puja ceremony attended by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at the premises of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected Martand Sun temple in Anantnag, with the ASI claiming that it was in violation of rules

About Martand Sun Temple:

• The eighth-century Martand Temple is one of the oldest sun temples in India and a symbol of invaluable ancient spiritual heritage.
• Built by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the 8th Century AD, the Martand Sun Temple is said to have been an excellent specimen of Kashmiri architecture and one of the holiest shrines for the Kashmiri Pandits.
• The temple was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in the 14th Century AD and the ruins are now marked as a “site of national importance” by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Recently, Health authorities in the United Kingdom have confirmed a case of monkeypox, a rare viral infection similar to smallpox, in an individual who recently travelled to that country from Nigeria.

Key Points:

About Monkeypox:

• It is a viral zoonotic disease that occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa and is occasionally exported to other regions.
• Monkeypox virus infection has been detected in squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, and some species of monkeys.
• Monkeypox is caused by monkeypox virus, a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.
• Monkeypox typically presents clinically with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.
• Monkeypox virus is mostly transmitted to people from wild animals such as rodents and primates, but human-to-human transmission also occurs.
• The incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) for monkeypox is usually 7-14 days but can range from 5-21 days.
• The clinical presentation of monkeypox resembles that of smallpox, a related orthopoxvirus infection which was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980.
• Vaccinia vaccine used during the smallpox eradication programme was also protective against monkeypox.
• A new third generation vaccinia vaccine has now been approved for prevention of smallpox and

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted the Cyclone Asani to intensify into a ‘severe cyclone’ over Southeast regions of Bay of Bengal.

Key Points:

• The name Cyclone Asani has been given by Sri Lanka. It means ‘wrath’ in Sinhalese.
• Tropical cyclones in the North Indian Ocean region (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) develop during the pre-monsoon (April to June) and post-monsoon (October to December) periods.

Tropical Cyclones

• A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
• A characteristic feature of tropical cyclones is the eye, a central region of clear skies, warm temperatures, and low atmospheric pressure.
• Storms of this type are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific and typhoons in SouthEast Asia and China. They are called tropical cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean region and Willy-willies in north-western Australia.
• Storms rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
• The conditions favourable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms are:
  1. Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
  2. Presence of the Coriolis force.
  3. Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
  4. A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
  5. Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Recently, the Centre through the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) conducted a webinar on “Export Promotion of Tissue Culture Plants’’ such as Foliage, Live Plants, Cut Flowers, and Planting Material” with Department of Biotechnology (DBT) accredited tissue culture laboratories spread across India.

What is Tissue Culture?

• It is the production of new plants from a small piece of plant tissue or cells removed from the growing tips of a plant in a suitable growth medium.
• In this process the growth medium or culture solution is very important as it is used for growing plant tissue because it contains various plant nutrients in the form of ‘jelly’ known as agar and plant hormones which are necessary for the growth of plants.

What are the Applications of Plant Tissue Culture?

• To study the respiration and metabolism of plants.
• For the evaluation of organ functions in plants.
• To study the various plant diseases and work out methods-for their elimination.
• Single cell clones are useful for genetic, morphological and pathological studies.
• Embryonic cell suspensions can be used for large scale clonal propagation.
• Somatic embryos from cell suspensions can be stored for long term in germplasm banks.
• In the production of variant clones with new characteristics, a phenomenon referred to as somaclonal variations.
• Production of haploids (with a single set of chromosomes) for improving crops.
• Mutant cells can be selected from cultures and used for crop improvement.
• Immature embryos can be cultured in vitro to produce hybrids, a process referred to as embryo rescue