QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 20 May 2020

Solution: a)

About 50 per cent of all crop residue burnt in the country are residues of rice crop.
The primary thrust of the 1981 Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act is on industrial and automobile-related pollution. But this doesn’t mean it can’t be used for burning of biomass and crop residue. Indeed, in December 2015, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change used Section 18(1)(b) of this legislation to issue directions for Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region), covering burning of agricultural waste, crop residues and biomass. Plus, there is the Environment Protection Act of 1986.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has formulated the “National Policy for Management of Crop Residues (NPMCR), 2014” and circulated to all States/UTs, to ensure prevention of burning of crop residues, by incentivizing purchase of modern machineries to minimize left-over crop residue in the field, in situ conservation and mixing of residue in soil to increase soil fertility, multiple uses of crop residue, formulation of fodder pellets and briquettes.”

National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned crop residue burning in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

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Solution: b)

Pollution from stubble burning in winter is the key contributor to the sharp decline in air quality in Delhi. But stubble burning continues unabated. To find a solution to this issue, India is testing a Swedish technology — torrefaction that can convert rice stubble into ‘bio-coal’.

The technology involves heating up straw, grass, saw mill residue and wood biomass to 250 degrees Celsius – 350 degrees Celsius. This changes the elements of the biomass into ‘coal-like’ pellets. These pellets can be used for combustion along with coal for industrial applications like steel and cement production

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Solution: d)

Green crackers have been named as Safe Water Releaser (SWAS), Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR) and Safe Minimal Aluminium (SAFAL). According to the researchers, the crackers have the unique property of releasing water vapour and/or air as a dust suppressant and diluent for gaseous emissions that match with the performance in sound with traditional conventional crackers. They are designed to have 30% less particulate matter pollution.

Such ‘green’ crackers were researched and developed by scientists at CSIR-NEERI as per the court’s directions.

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Solution: d)

The New Arrangement to Borrow is the fund mobilization arrangement of the IMF to mobilise additional funds through borrowing from member countries. Under NAB, member countries and institutions can stand ready to lend to the Fund.

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Solution: c)

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3 November 2001.

It is also known as Seed Treaty as it is a comprehensive international agreement for ensuring food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA).

The Treaty aims at:

• recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world;
• establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials;
• ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.

Main Provisions:

Multilateral system: The treaty puts 64 of our most important crops – crops that together account for 80 percent of the food we derive from plants – into an easily accessible global pool of genetic resources that is freely available to potential users in the Treaty’s ratifying nations for some uses.

Access and benefit sharing: The Treaty facilitates access to the genetic materials of the 64 crops in the Multilateral System for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. Those who access the materials must be from the Treaty’s ratifying nations and they must agree to use the materials totally for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. The Treaty prevents the recipients of genetic resources from claiming intellectual property rights over those resources in the form in which they received them.