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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Hiroshima Univ to support Sikkim University faculty’s research on impact of climate change on large cardamom production in Sikkim

GANGTOK, 18 Oct: Dr. Binu Sundas of Sikkim University has returned after completing a Short Term  Research Fellow Course of the “Global Environment Leaders Education Program” at the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University, Japan from 30 July to 30 September, informs a press release.
This program was initiated to tackle issues of climate change and to bring about a low carbon society, the release details. The objective of the program was to face the challenge posed by these issues together by understanding the specific needs and problems of individual areas and also by forming networks among researchers and countries. 
Dr. Sundas studied the decreasing production of large cardamom in Sikkim. During the Winter Sojourn program of the university, an SU team had found that the production of large cardamom in Sikkim was steadily and consistently decreasing. It also came to light that apart from the diseases affecting the plant, non-availability of adequate water was also responsible for the falling production. These factors led Dr. Sundas to test the relationship between large cardamom production and the changing climatic variables, the release explains.
During the course of the program he studied the production of cardamom in Sikkim and analysed the changes in the climatic variables and tried to analyse their relationship using Nichols model where it was found that there is a relationship between the two. The temperature in Sikkim is rising and that the rainfall is decreasing progressively.
This led him to develop a proposal on studying the effect of climate change on the production of cardamom. The release further informs that the research will analyse the specific effect of these changing climatic variables and at specific cycle of the plant, which will be funded by Hiroshima University and the research will be conducted under the leadership of Sikkim University.
The proposal was presented during a symposium organized by the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation on 09 September. The proposal has been accepted and funding of the research will be finalized in November.
Dr. Sundas’s paper on how organic farming in Sikkim is aiding the reduction of carbon content in the environment but vehicular emission neutralizing the gains of organic farming, has been accepted for a special issue of the IDEC journal, it is further informed.

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