Mppsc current affairs

🔆 Microbial Link Between Arsenic & Rice Yield
📍 Source – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

📍 Key Findings
✅ It’s not the soil arsenic levels alone, but the type of microbes in rice paddies that determines arsenic toxicity and crop loss.
✅ Arsenic-methylating bacteria convert inorganic arsenic into toxic compounds (DMA, DMMTA), while demethylating archaea help detoxify the soil.
✅ A high ratio of methylating to demethylating microbes increases the risk of “straighthead disease”, causing up to 70% yield loss.
✅ Soils older than 700 years show more demethylating microbes — safer for crops.

📍 Implications
✅ Managing microbial balance may be key to reducing arsenic buildup in rice grains.
✅ Climate change and altered flooding regimes can worsen microbial imbalance, heightening risk.
✅ India — the world’s second-largest rice producer — must prioritize soil microbiome monitoring to protect yield and food safety.

✨ Future rice security depends as much on managing microbes as on managing soil.

📍 Mains Question:
Discuss how microbial activity in paddy soils influences arsenic toxicity and its implications for food safety and agricultural sustainability in India.

#Geography

https://www.tgoop.com/Mapping_prelims_mains

www.tgoop.com/mppsc_current/14281

814 viewsOct 21 at 15:55

🔆 Microbial Link Between Arsenic & Rice Yield
📍 Source – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

📍 Key Findings
✅ It’s not the soil arsenic levels alone, but the type of microbes in rice paddies that determines arsenic toxicity and crop loss.
✅ Arsenic-methylating bacteria convert inorganic arsenic into toxic compounds (DMA, DMMTA), while demethylating archaea help detoxify the soil.
✅ A high ratio of methylating to demethylating microbes increases the risk of “straighthead disease”, causing up to 70% yield loss.
✅ Soils older than 700 years show more demethylating microbes — safer for crops.

📍 Implications
✅ Managing microbial balance may be key to reducing arsenic buildup in rice grains.
✅ Climate change and altered flooding regimes can worsen microbial imbalance, heightening risk.
✅ India — the world’s second-largest rice producer — must prioritize soil microbiome monitoring to protect yield and food safety.

✨ Future rice security depends as much on managing microbes as on managing soil.

📍 Mains Question:
Discuss how microbial activity in paddy soils influences arsenic toxicity and its implications for food safety and agricultural sustainability in India.

#Geography

https://www.tgoop.com/Mapping_prelims_mains

BY Mppsc current affairs