Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Sep 25, 2009
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Sep 25, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Events States - Other States Meet on sea buckthorn to focus on research, utilisation G. Srinivasan New Delhi, Sept. 24 Sea buckthorn, a wonder plant with medicinal properties for high altitude regions and rich in antioxidants, vitamins and mineral, will be the subject of a two-day national conference beginning on Friday in the Leh region. The conference is sponsored by the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), Leh of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Located at 11,500 ft and the world’s highest research establishment with core competence in arid agro-animal technologies, the institute has been instrumental in the development, patenting and commercialisation of beverage from sea buckthorn berry. DIHAR sources told Business Line here, the technology of berry to beverage has been made over to several companies and is being marketed under brand names as ‘Leh berry’, ‘Ladakh berry’, ‘Power berry’ and ‘Sindhu berry’. The beverage is part of the special ration for troops deployed in high altitude regions. More recently, the technology of sea buckthorn herbal supplement (Chyavanprash) has been transferred to IMPCL, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Ayush, for commercialisation. The sources said the cost of berries have risen from Rs 8 in 2001 to Rs 22/kg due to its commercial use, benefiting the local growers. However, the utilisation level of the available sea buckthorn is only 5 per cent. That is one of the reasons why the conference on “Sea buckthorn and Environment: High Altitude Perspectives” is being organised to provide comprehensive perspective for optimising and streamlining sea buckthorn research from its cultivation, including post-harvest management to drug development. A DIHAR official explained the conference will discuss management practices to conserve the fragile environment of this region and evolve integrated strategies for wholesome utilisation. The conference will be inaugurated by the Minister of State for Defence, Mr M.M. Pallam Raju, who will also flag off the National Facility for Permafrost Based storage of seeds and vegetables at Chang-la situated at an altitude of 17,586 ft.
In Ladakh, DIHAR has created a Permafrost germplasm and vegetable storage facility to serve as a safety net for food security in an era of global warming and climate change. Apart from India, only Norway has such a facility in the world. The sources said that the Permafrost Storage would be a national facility which will keep things at -4 to -20 degreeC temperature inside the structure with 10-30 per cent moisture. The structure is designed on ‘black box condition’ storage mechanism by which the storage boxes remain the property of the institution which send them and could be opened only with the depositor’s permission, avoiding conflicts pertaining to intellectual property rights. More Stories on : Events | Research & Development | Other States
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