The commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde said the centre was planning to rubberise roads in the country as part of its efforts to provide relief to rubber growers, hit by slump in prices. Hegde said he had written to all chief ministers and concerned ministry for launching a programme of rubberisation of roads in their states. In Delhi, it was taken up on a large scale, he told a press conference at the Cochin Export Processing Zone (CEPZ). Since rubber was available cheaply now, construction costs would be less. Rubberised roads would last for a minimum of 15 to 18 years and would be less prone to accidents, Hegde added. The minister said the farmers were badly hit a few months back due to poor rubber production and slump in consumption. Due to industrial recession, the use of rubber came down by 40 per cent, particularly by the tyre manufacturers.

New technology allows effective utilise of urea

A new technology that allows plants to utilise ureatwice as efficiently in soil has been patented by crop scientists here. The technology, developed by the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (Cimap) here, involves coating urea with some plant extracts that enhances its availability in soil. A substantial part of urea, added as fertiliser, is lost to atmosphere as gases. Urea is broken down to ammonia by a process called hydrolysis and oxides of nitrogen through the nitrification process, making it unavailable to plants. "The new process could reduce hydrolysis of urea by 30 per cent and nitrification by 40 per cent," Cimap director Sushil Kumar said. Each year about 10 million tonnes of nitrogenous fertilisers, mainly urea, are applied by farmers to augment crop produce.

Scheme to assess impact of paper mill effluent irrigation

A research team from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University had identified varieties of sugarcane, rice, groundnut and fodder grass, which could give better yield under paper mill effluent irrigation. The teamalso suggested steps to be taken for overcoming the ill effects of continuous paper mill effluent irrigation without any adverse effect to the soil, under a five-year project (1993-98) sponsored by Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd (TNPL). They had assessed the impact of continuous use of TNPL effluent irrigation on soil chemical, physical and biological properties and crop yield at TNPL model farm, Moolimangalam and monitored the productivity status of field soil, according to university's vice-chancellor, Dr Abdul Kareem. TNPL authorities, in appreciation of the progress made during the five years, have extended the scheme for another three years from May '99 to March 2002, with an outlay of Rs 15.37 lakh, Kareem said.

Malaysian May palm oil output up 12.57%

Malaysia's palm oil output rose 12.57 per cent to 1.01 million tonnes in May from 894,267 in April, and against 6,42,676 tonnes in May 1998, the Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority (PORLA) said. It said end-May stocks were up19.02 per cent at 9,67,721 tonnes from 8,13,066 tonnes at end-April, and against 6,49,842 tonnes at end-May 1998. Exports in May were at 7,33,234 tonnes against 6,85,476 tonnes in April and 5,31,270 tonnes in May 1998.

Australia 99/00 sugar output still on 5.2 MT

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) held its forecast of Australian raw sugar production for 1999/00 (July-June) steady on its previous forecast of 5.20 million tonnes. This is up from estimated production of 4.87 million tonnes of last year. The main reason for the increase in output is a forecast of one per cent expansion in the area harvested, including some cane which was previously unharvestable because of wet weather, ABARE said in its June quarter Australian Commodities bulletin. The forecast increased production was also based on a recovery in average yields, with likely higher commercial cane sugar content expected for all but the northern and Herbert regions of Queensland, it said. But growerreturns were likely to be lower in 1999/00 because of a substantial fall in world sugar prices, compounded by an assumed stronger Australian dollar, it said.