The Importance of Conservation of Traditional Native Crops and Crop related diversity during the Second Green Revolution

By Dr. Ashok Panigrahi, formerly Principal Investigator, UGC Maj. Res. Proj. Org. Farming Project Director, Navdanya Project- Sustainable Development of Ecosystems in Orissa, Bls.

Any discussion on agriculture in India must begin with a history of the practices followed here (our own) and borrowed from the west (thrust from outside) starting from the pre green revolution time.

State of agriculture before the second world war:

In the US – Machine driven or Mechanized

In Europe including UK – driven by chemical fertilisers

In Japan – mainly involved irrigation

In India and else where in Asia – Rainfed cultivation using compost

During the colonial days, Sir Albert Howard, M.A.,CIE was brought to India by the British to train Indian peasants the art and science of chemical agriculture. He ended up learning organic farming from the Indian peasants and went on to develop and publish the famous ‘Indore Process’ which was followed widely in the Agriculture world in the 1930s .

During the same time the development of hybrid corn pioneered a new era in agriculture which combined the use of genetics, machines, artificial chemical fertilisers and irrigation to achieve enormous increases in corn yields. It subsequently engulfed other crop varieties including rice.

In the 1940s synthetic chemical pesticides were added to make up the so called technological package in world agriculture.

In the 1990s, the ‘seed’ became the central focal point for all the driving forces that created the agricultural revolutions with the entry of multinational industrial houses into the seed sector.

Leading Agro Biotech Corporations & their Agribusiness,’99.

Corporations Total

Sales Agribusiness Sales Seed

Production Ranking (global) Agro-

Chemical Sales Ranking (global) Pharmaceutical

Sales (their

Original busi.) Research &

DevelopmentInvestments

‘Life Science’ Group ( involved mainly in genetic modification of various crop plants )

Aventis $20.5 billion $4.6 billion n/a 1 $13.9 billion $3 billion

Novartis*

(Syngenta) $20.3 billion $4.4 billion 3 2 $9.8 billion $2.2 billion

Monsanto(98) $ 8.6 billion $4 billion 2 3 $2.8 billion $1.3 billion

AstraZeneca*

(Syngenta) $18.4 billion $2.7 billion 6 5 $14.8 billion $2.9 billion

‘Industrial Science’ Group ( involved mainly in production of various agrochemicals )

Bayer $27 billion $3.1 billion n/a 6 $5 billion $2.1 billion

DuPont** $26.9 billion $3 billion 1 4 $1.6 billion $1.6 billion

Dow $18.9 billion $2.3 billion —— 8 —— $0.85 billion

BASF $29.5 billion $1.7 billion —— 9 $2.5 billion $1.3 billion

The dawn of 1st Green Revolution – introduction of the hybrids, HYVs and Agrochemicals, ACFs & SCPs, in agroecosystems –

The 2nd world war ended sooner than expected. Following the war in the US, there were huge stock piles of war surplus chemicals manufactured to produce the explosives. These were mainly nitrogenous and phosphatic in composition. Scientists were engaged to find out new use for these war surplus chemicals and they located it in the agricultural fields the world over as artificial chemical fertilizers. Other scientists were also engaged to design and generate crop varieties which could consume jumbo doses of these ACFs and nobel laureate Norman Borloug was one of them who produced the “miracle wheat” in Mexico in 1966. He visited India in 1967 and declared, if he was a member of Indian Parliament he would have leapt up from his seat every 15 minutes to yell at the top of his voice ‘ fertilizer’, ‘give the farmers more fertilizer.’

At the beginning of the 1950s, the US foreign policy establishment was reeling from the loss of China to communism and the US was engaged militarily in Korea. The US interests in Asia and the Pacific were also threatened with the rise of revolutions demanding equitable distribution of resources and land reforms etc. The US determined to contain the spread of communism decided to achieve the same not through direct military involvements but through palliative reform measures not directed at feeding Asia’s growing population but for the US business interests. The GATT signed during that period is an example. This went on to give rise the new GATT, WTO, TRIPs, IPR, modification of our own Patents Act and formulation of the PVP Act, National Agriculture Policy etc. throwing our peasantry, agriculture and biodiversity to their eliminations.

Two huge US establishments, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation were involved in the process from the very beginning. Between them they set up IRRI at Manila in the Philippines in the early 1960s to breed HYV rice varieties in order to increase rice production in Asia. They also helped in the establishment of the CRRI and Agriculture Universities in India in the late 1950s to push through long term US business agenda.

The IRRI generated the ‘miracle rice’ IR-8 and released the same to the Asian farmers in 1966 and thus launched the Green Revolution ( I ) . This, and its early progeny IR- 20 (1969) and IR -24 (1971), rapidly replaced 1000s of diverse native traditional rice varieties as farmers by and large adopted these new varieties as‘seeds of hope’ widely in Asia. Unfortunately their hopes were soon crushed as the miracle rice succumbed to the brown plant hoppers. It was found out that the these uniform susceptible varieties ( IR – 8, IR- 20 and IR- 24) cultivated widely in Asia, gave the brown hoppers an unprecedented feeding ground. Brown plant hoppers also transmitted the grassy stunt virus that destroyed rice crop in 1,20,000 hectare in Indonesia alone in 1977 resulting in food loss to the tune of 2 million tons, that is enough to feed 6 million people.

Among the 1000s of rice accessions maintained at the IRRI’s gene bank only one could stand up to the grassy stunt virus and it was a wild rice called Oryza nivara, collected from Orissa in 1963. O. nivara is otherwise an economically useless variety but it had the character which no other rice variety had. Only 3 plants in the IRRI’s single accession contained a gene that was resistant to grassy stunt virus. This gene was immediately passed over to the IRRI’s new rice varieties including its super star,IR-36, through cross breeding . By 1982, IR-36 alone was cultivated on 11 million hectares of Asia’s rice lands thus acquiring the dubious honour of being the world’s single most widely planted rice variety in history.

However, by the mid 1980s , the resistance provided by O. nivara against stunt virus was breaking down in farmers fields and IRRI’s valuable rice varieties stood as vulnerable as ever leaving its breeders helpless. O. nivara was found to be a metaphor for the problems faced by the rice farmers of Asia. Since IR-8, IRRI has , in fact, transformed the lives, cultures and opportunities of countless local communities who depended on rice for their livelihood. To perform well and yield to their declared potentials, IRRI’s HYV rices required too much chemical inputs, access to credit and irrigation thus giving birth to new forms of social orders. While some benefited from the new rice varieties, a huge majority of the rice farming communities of Asia became

indebted, lost control over their food production systems and became caught in a spire of dependency. When the urban consumers got cheaper though tasteless rice, the rural producerslost the valuable ecological balance in their agroecosystems.

In the Indian context, we find today most of the land in Punjab are

impaired and dead. The minimum level of soil fertility is lost. Most of Punjab’s soil are diseased and dying and this is an openly admitted fact. The consumption of agrochemicals in Punjab has increased thirty folds since the inception of Green Revolution in that state and in India. The total amount of subsidy on ACFs has increased to rupees forty four thousand crores and this subsidy cost in distributed over all Indians including us. Punjab farmers get the benefit and we bear the cost. Between 1971 – 1981, 95% of small farmers of Punjab were lost or disappeared. The rate of profit from agriculture which once stood between 25% – 80%, has now comedown to 6% and yet things continue in the same way. This is one of the major factors for the farmers’ suicides in Punjab, AP and elsewhere in India and it is one of the gifts of the 1st Green Revolution to India.

The other gifts are soil – food and ground water poisoning owning to excessive use of agrochemicals – ACFs and Pesticides. These agrochemicals not only have caused the death and elimination of the natural predators of the agricultural pests but also of the pollinating bees besides the domesticated animals and human beings. Nitrate poisoning caused cattle epidemic in Nagpur in 1976, and it causes blue baby syndrome in human beings.

Pearson(1985) sums up that about 10,000 human beings die every year owing to pesticides in developing countries. Besides these agrochemicals between them help grow the pest population either directly or indirectly. When ACFs make the crop plants soft and tender, the pesticides build up resistances in pests.

The Dawn of the 2nd Green Revolution – the introduction of Genetic Modifications in Crops –

With the growth of a new branch of biological science called Biotechnology, scientists postulated that the same could be exploited for agricultural advantages. Thus, genetically modified (GM) crops such as Bt.Cotton were developed in the early 1990s.Till date over a 100 of them are under cultivation round the earth. It was said that these transgenic crop plants would reduce pesticide dependence, would have the ability to detract, repel or kill the pests and tolerate herbicides, weedicides, fungicides;

another category of agrochemicals developed to be produced and used to combat the weed plants,( all plants other than the crop plants ) and harmful fungi.

It thereby opened doors for additional industries for agriculture. In other words, agriculture was made too much industry dependent; fertilizer, pesticide, weedicide, herbicide, fungicide, nematocides and so on. With the creation of transgenic crops like Bt. Cotton and GM maize like GE crops a new industry entered into the field of agriculture the world over. Thus the place of origin of seeds was taken away from the plants to the scientists laboratories, nullifying Darwin’s laws of natural selection and artificial selection. Thus also, the farmers were reduced to consumer – producers from producers only.

Transgenic crops were accepted by many countries ( if not all ) including India under the impressions that they would ensure food production and prevent crop failure as far as seed quality and pest menaces were concerned. The same is clearly reflected in our own National Agriculture Policy, 2000. But what happened subsequent to that is everybody’s knowledge. Let us examine the case of Bt. Cotton crop in US. According to the chemical used data provided by the US Department of Agriculture, the total million pounds applied between 1946 and 2000 were as under –

1946 = 78 ; 1966 = 64.9 ; 1971 = 73.4 ; 1976 = 64.2 ; 1982 = 19.4 ; 1992 = 19.8 ; 1998 = 14.8*; 2000 = 40.5*.

It is to note that Bt. Cotton was widely cultivated in the US from the year 1996. It, however, failed to reduce crop’s pesticide- dependence in just within 4 years. In India, the cultivation of Bt. Cotton is the single largest factor for the hundreds of farmers’ death in Andhrapradesh and Vidarbha region of Maharastra.

With the origin of GM/GE/Transgenic crops, big multinational industrial houses entered into the seed sector. They wanted to sale their seeds protected by Patent Laws, to farmers every year as their own inventions. This motive is reflected in 2 associated technologies they integrated into the process of such seed generations.

* Terminator Technology (also called TPS or Technologies Protection System –or- GURTs or Generic Use Restriction Technologies) – It is the technique by which the seeds are made male sterile. The technology employed is aimed at preventing the farmers from sowing the seeds from their harvests for the next crops, thus compelling them to buy the seeds for every crop they wish to grow.

* Traitor Technology – It refers to a technology that allows a plants’ genetic traits to be turned ‘ on or off ’ when a certain chemical is applied to the plant or seed. In other words, it is the technology by which sterility is chemically controlled. The industry thus suggests that farmers would be able to activate or deactivate genetic traits such as disease resistance in crop by applying a certain proprietory chemical prescribed by the seed company for the plant or seed that they would have to buy.

The New Threat – arising out of the new terminator technology is a global one and it is against small and marginal farmers, national food security and biodiversity. Over 1.5 billion of our small and marginal farmers ( peasants, in the proper sense) who save their seeds including the HYVs traditionally stand to lose their seed source.

Communities that lose control over their seeds risk losing control over their farming systems and becoming dependent on outside seed sources together with the prescribed proprietory inputs that come along with the seeds. In the changed system where a great majority of the farming communities don’t have access to seed security, food security stand to be disrupted as the same would be impracticable. Hence, our food security will be a myth in the coming days unless we restructure our own system. Fortunately, Indian farmers are encouraged “to save, conserve, exchange and sell their own saved traditional native seeds ( except the branded seeds of protected varieties)” under the Input Management chapter of our National Agriculture Policy, 2000.

In the words of:-

1. Ishopanishad – The universe is the creation of the supreme power meant for the benefit of all his creations. Individual species must, therefore, learn to enjoy its benefits by forming a part of the system in close relationship with one another. Let not only one species encroach upon the others’ rights.

2. Anon – Native biodiversities, a source of pride for each country, composing as it does, a shining part of the national heritage.

3. M.S Swaminathan – Our national food security depends on our ability to conserve all our biological wealth (= biodiversity).

Biodiversity is the degree of biological varieties in nature and not in nature itself. Diversity of species in natural habitats is high in warm moist areas and decrease with increasing latitude and altitude. That is precisely the reason why, tropical moist forests contain half of the worlds’ biological diversity although they occupy only 7% of the worlds’ land area.

Transgenic plants with terminator technology are a direct threat to the biodiversity because there exists a natural phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer between closely grown plants beyond the species, genera and even kingdom barriers. If this happens, countries like ours, rich in biodiversity stand to lose biodiversity soon.

Genetically modified plants have very week immune systems and for that they depend heavily on the application of a chemical designed to uplift their natural defenses against pests and disease. If the fate of the GE crop plants are like this, how can the small and marginal farmers afford to cultivate such plants which demand excessively high cost external inputs for their existence?

In essentiality, GM crops lead to ‘ bioserfdom’ – that is they threaten to hold farmers hostage to multinationals through sterile seeds and chemically dependent plants.

Other facts:-

Transgenic plants produce toxins and allergens owing to genetic modifications. GM Soya cultivated widely in the US and Brazil has such protein in it which is allergic to many human beings. Fibers of Bt. Cotton is found to be allergic to many even in India. So is the case of Bt. Potato, now widely used as potato chips.

Transgenic plants with Bt. gene cause death of monarch butterfly larvae. Even pollen grains from Bt. plants are enough to cause their death.

Transgenic crops with Bt. gene consumed by cows and visited by honey bees render their milk and honey contaminated with Bt. protein, now known to be allergic to many human beings.

Terpenoid gossypol is a trait used to make cotton resistant to caterpillar pests. The cotton seed meal from this crop has been found to be poisonous to swine and turn the yolk in chicken eggs darker.

Transgenic corn is not approved for human consumption; it is meant for the cows. A few years ago pollen from the GM corn fields were drifted away to pollute adjacent corn fields leading to digestive problems in the consumers of such corn. It was such incidents that compelled scientists to adopt terminator technology lading to- not solving the problem rather compounding the same.

Independent scientists like Robert Hartley, Jeremy Rifkin etc. have compiled at least 50 harmful effects of GM foods which include soya sauce, pop corn, candy bar, potato chips and have preferred to level terminator technology as thano (=death) technology. They have also leveled such applications of biotechnology as- wreaking havoc with the planet’s biospheres.

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) now widely used as a promoter in transgenic crops, is potentially too dangerous because it is a para retro virus and is very similar to Hepatitis B virus and HIV. In the system of non targeted species (like the vertebrates and human beings), it may (lab. tests have shown so) produce recombinant highly virulent virus that may activate oncogenes and cause cancer. This is the opinion of scientists like Professor Joseph Cummins of the University of West Ontario and a host of other independent scientists. Viral affects of our coconut crop and death of plants in the wild west may be due to CaMV infections.

What should we do now ?

We save our seeds.Under the provisions of the Inputs Management chapter (protection of plant varieties) of the National Agriculture Policy 2000, farmers are “allowed their traditional rights to save, use, exchange, share and sell their farm saved seeds.” Under the provisions of the Sustainable Agriculture chapter (agro biodiversity) farmers have been empowered –”conservation of bio-resources through ex-situ preservation in gene banks, as also in–situ conservation in their natural habitats through biodiversity parks.” These activities have been assured “high priority to prevent biodiversity extinction with emphasis on the importance of conservation of the indigenous breeds facing extinction”. It has been promised “to enlist the country’s vast agro biodiversity in a time bound programme.”

Biodiversity means all the plant and animal resources of the planet; when agro-biodiversity includes all those plants and animals of agricultural importance. It includes animals as earthworms, bees, predatory organisms and plants as green manuring, mixed cropping, trap crop and agro-forestry. These were more or less known well to the Indian farmers before 1960s. The green manuring plants, dhaincha (Sesbania), sun hemp (Crotolaria) and Gliricidia are good in kharif and Azolla, senji (Melilorus) and gour (Cyamposis) are good in rabi. Between them they on decomposition, enrich the soil with 60 – 200 kg Nitrogen per hectare in 45 – 60 days. Trap crops protect the main crops like cabbage by mustard, corn by sorghum cotton by corn, groundnut by corn pea and tomato by marigold. In the words of Masanobu Fukuoka, ‘ human salvation lies in returning to nature; the ecological devastation must be reversed before it is too late’.

As far as rice is concerned, all indigenous varieties are not poor yielder, a mistake made by the proponents of the Green Revolutions in this country. They failed to appreciate the fact that some of the natives were better high yielding themselves. Dr.R.H. Richaria, an Internationally renowned Indian rice scientist was known to have documented some such HY – natives, selected and improved through peasants and indigenous people of India which could outmatch and outweigh the best yielding rice HYVs. This was done by Dr. Richaria at least 15 years before the launch of the Green Revolution. Richaria’s highest yield was 54 quintals per acre or 13.6 tons per hectare achieved in Salem and the lowest yield was 24 quintals per acre or 6 tons per hectare achieved in West Bengal from his indigenous improved rice varieties (the basis of cultivation not being known). The presenter himself achieved 28 quintals per acre organically in the fields of a peasant at Mayurbhanj in kharif of 2004-05, using internal inputs only.

Many of the Indian rice varieties have known medicinal properties which have been traditionally used in Ayurveda, Unani systems of medicine and by traditional healers for generations. As per Ayurveda some native Chhattisgarh rice varieties have such medicinal values as tonic aphrodisiac, curative of dysentery, curative in skin infections, useful in the treatment of rheumatism, early removal of placenta in cow after delivery and rice water, an excellent healer of inflammatory disorders. These rice varieties are known locally as – Laicha, Bhejari and Dhanwar. Meharaji, another native rice, has been used as tonic for women after child birth. Saraiphool is known to provide strength to the physically weak persons, Karhani gives relief in case of paralysis. Inhalation of fumes of rice bran of Baisur cure headache and Rasari is used in the treatment of chronic cough. This is widely known among the village elders in Chhattisgarh.

Besides rice grains, soil of rice growing fields are also known to be of medicinal use in Chhattisgarh. The rice soil of Chhattisgarh are of 3 major types – Kanhar (Vertisols); Dorsa (Alfisols) and Matasi (Inceptisols). Such soils are also used in the treatment of over 30 acute and 10 chronic ailments.

Literature is available to show that other countries in south east Asia also exploited the medicinal values of their native rice varieties. Rice bran is known to contain Vitamin – B which cures beriberi. In Malayasia aqueous extracts of boiled green rice is used in eye as a lotion and in the treatment of inflammations of inner body tissues. In China sprouted rice grains are used as digestive stimulant, give tone to muscles and as antiflatulant. The Chinese also believe rice as healer of spleen infections.

Njavara, the unique short duration (60 – 70 days) land rice of Kerala is valued highly for its medicinal properties. This rice strain is aromatic, sweet to taste, easily digestible and has germicidal properties and this is why it is mostly used in treatment only and hardly eaten except in exigency. Njavara rice is used in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis, neurological disorders and as muscle relaxant by the Ayurvedic physicians.

The presenter was also requested to send some amount of a 60 day paddy (Sathia) to a person in Mumbai for the treatment of an old age person in 2004 and later learnt that the patient got relief.

Some native rice varieties of India and abroad are known to contain substantial amounts of allolochemicals which when released through their leaf, root and pollen restrict the growth and development of other plants (weeds). Such native Indian rice varieties have been documented as Bala, Dular, India AC –1423 and IET – 1444. Japan has one such variety called Novin -29 , and the US has 2 such varieties, Cuba – 6558A and Cuba – 65V58.

In view of the above, it is essential to conserve the different traits of rice varieties so evolved through the combined process of natural selections and artificial selections in different ecoclimatic conditions over the centuries with their fragrance, taste, medicinal and high yielding properties. It is essentially the same for other crops also. Besides, the all important seed has entered into a regime of company monopoly. Farmers have to save their own seeds for the sake of ensured crop and food security. Seed security is more important than food security. If farmers do not save their own seeds urgently they are sure to fall in to trap of the big multinational seed companies and from which they cannot move out. If this happens, all Indians will be reduced to laboratory guinea pigs in the hands of the multinational seed companies very soon.

The necessity to conserve the different rice varieties so adapted to different eco-climatic conditions, important to and now available with the farmers has no doubt stirred them most. They have already started the process. Sri R.K.Behera of Bhandeswar in Balasore and Sri B.Dwivedy of Tentala in Mayurbhanj have conserved 18 & 17 native & nativised rice varieties respectively. Navdanya-PPBSA, Balasore has conserved over 550 rice strains, natives and nativised, till date. Seeds of these varieties are selectively donated to affected farmers in disaster areas like in Erasama, Nandigram (WB) and Nagapattinam(TN) as “seeds of hope,” Navdanya’s disaster management programme.

Another need of the time is sustainability in agriculture which can be achieved only when the farmer strictly avoids all purchased external inputs and relies extensively on farm generated internal inputs, there by reducing the market dependence for growing the crop or crops. The change in system will have to ensure proper maintenance of ecological balance and basic biological functions of soil- water – humus – nutrients continuum. For that the farmer has to abandon the current practice of monoculture of crops and switch over to polyculture, agro forestry, green manuring and integrated crop-live stock system.

Dependence on biodiversity, adoption of vermin technology for enhancing soil fertility and biological – botanical control of pests and diseases are of paramount importance in such a system. It will thus nourish and resuscitate the dying or dead soil, improve the environment, reduce pollution of food and water and generate tasty, healthy and abundant food.

Dr.Ashok Kumar Panigrahi

Technorati Tags: address, attack, compute, eavesdrop, eavesdropping, internet, ip, network, risk, security, sniffing, snooping, threat, virus, websites

Antivirus PDA packages are widely available from all of the major antivirus software companies. Companies like Symantec, McAfee and Computer Associates all make antivirus software designed to protect PDA’s.

Before deciding on an antivirus software package for your PDA, it is important to know what type of operating system your PDA uses. The most popular windows operating systems for PDA’sare the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, and the Windows CE. But different models of PDA will run on different operating systems. Not all PDA’s use Windows as their operating system (like the Palm One which uses the Palm OS). So be sure you know what operating system you will need to protect.

So, what are the main options that you have regarding a good PDA anti virus? Here are some of the most popular options:
Panda Security Can Save Your Job

1.Kaspersky Security for PDA- This unique combination of tools is protecting data stored on PDA’s. The software provides full-scale protection of personal data stored on PDA computers running the most popular operating systems – Windows CE and Palm OS, and also provides full control over access
2.McAffe – Featuring online virus scanning for PDA’s and hand-held devices, subscription-based services include virus alerting and security news for the Palm.
3.PC-cillin – Antivirus software for desktop PCs, PC-cillin also provides mobile users the extra protection needed to stay virus-free on the road, including Wi-Fi connection security and PDA synchronization protection.

These are just a few examples for quality anti virus protection packages for a PDA.

You may also want to get recommendations from the manufacturer of your PDA as well. Each manufacturer may recommend a different type of antivirus software. That is because different software packages will work better with different types of PDA’s.

The antivirus software for PDA’s are available as downloads directly from the companies that make them. Antivirus software packages can also be purchased from computer retailers and electronics stores.

No matter where you purchase your antivirus software, having a good strong antivirus package is absolutely vital for any PDA owner

Ron Hel-Or

Technorati Tags: Cafe, Cloud, Collective Intelligence, commercial, Identity Theft, malware, Panda Security, pandalabs, threat, trojan, virus

A hard drive is so vital and it’s important to take proper care of it and save from getting corrupt – thus saving your data.

Problems in hard drive can cause major data loss and inaccessibility of data. Just imagine, you cannot show photographs, videos of a family function to your dear ones just because your hard disk crashed. Will you not regret the situation of watching and enjoying pictures and videos with your family?

Hard drive crashes can take place due to several reasons; it can be a hardware problem, virus attacks, media errors, spy ware attacks and many other unknown reasons.

Is it possible to identify the problem of your hard drive crash?

Let’s say that your hard drive crashed, but you do not know the reason, why this disaster occurred. You can discover this with the help of flashing light on front of your CPU. This light keeps blinking when the computer system is busy.

If you see the light flashing but your computer system is not able to boot up then it’s a problem related to some software i.e. its an ope
How to Fix a Crashed Hard drive PLUS BONUS

rating system malfunction or a virus contamination. This can be effectively repaired and fixed by formatting the computer system thus saving your important data and files.

But the worst still resides, if the flashing light does not function while booting. It means that your hard drive is not able to run and is not performing any activity – A Mechanical problem.

It may sound good to purchase a new hard drive in this scenario but doesn’t the corrupt hard drive store your important data? At this point, you should always take services of hard drive recovery specialists, a professional data recovery service provider who can actually recover your lost data without causing any harm to it.

There are times when your hard drive gives indications of some mishappenings about to happen; like, creepy noises from the hard drive, automatic shutdowns, hanged up OS, slow running of the PC. These indications give you a chance to become alert, careful, and start backing up your data as soon as you notice these happenings.

Here I would like to discuss some causes and solutions to the hard drive recovery.

Why hard drives get corrupt?

The major activity which happens when hard drives crash, is the loss of data. Data Loss is termed as loss of data stored on your hard drive. This data, when damaged is recoverable or unrecoverable depending upon the reason and extent of hard drive corruption.

The general reasons for data loss are poor usage of media, virus attacks and manufacturing defaults.

Improper or Poor usage of the hard drive:

A non-technical person might not be aware of the proper and secure means of using and maintaining of the hard disk. Vibrations or collision, inadequate cleaning, split liquids can damage the hard drive and lead to data loss situations.

Virus Attacks:

Viruses can enter your computer system from nowhere. Whether you download a song, open an email attachment or access any free software provider web site; viruses, spy ware or ad ware can easily make space for themselves and start corrupting your hard drive.

Manufacturing Defaults:

After rigorous testings, 4 or 5 hard drives can be found amongst hundreds which give problems after certain time period of their usage. Defects in your computer system can make the case more worsened but it’s quite possible to recover the maximum or complete data from them.

Measures to Avoid Hard Drive Corruptions

The above points are the major reasons of data loss because of hard drive corruptions. The best and effective measure to avoid such kind of situations is to regularly backup your data or when you notice some strange happenings with your disk drive, start backing up data.

1. Perform regular Backups: The best way to prevent data loss is to backup data on regular basis to an external media like a CD or DVD. This would help you when you face the situation of data loss and can save your pocket from investing on data recovery procedures.

The backed up data can prove useful in case if you need to contact a data recovery company. The data recovery company can effectively help you in data recovery, as you already have backup of your data which will help the data recovery professional to retrieve your data back.

2. Keep your Media Clean: Your hard drive should be important to you as it stores your valuable data. As you keep your important things clean, hard drives should also be cleaned from time to time to keep it safe from dust particles as they damage your hard drive slowly just like slow poison.

“Always remember that it’s the hard drive which makes your OS and PC LIVE.”

3. anti-virus Solution: Regularly scan your PC with good anti-virus software to keep viruses, ad ware, and spy ware at bay. Good firewall and anti virus utilities help to keep your hard drive safe and secure from unwanted attacks.

4. Defragmentation – another good option: Try to defragment your hard drive once a month. By defragmentation it means to organize your data and reduce fragmentation of a file on a storage device by moving separated parts into a contiguous location.

5. Other Minor Preventive Measures: Some minor precautionary steps also prove helpful to rescue hard drive corruptions. You can implement SPAM guard on your incoming and outgoing emails and delete your temporary internet files on a regular basis.

Update your computer system by regularly by downloading the latest updates for your operating system.

6. Try Third Party Utility: If the case of data loss in your situation is severe, you should always go for corrupt hard drive recovery software. As, if you try to diagnose the corrupt hard drive by your self or through some cheap measures, this could lead to heavy expenditures on hard drive repair and data recovery.

The hard drive data recovery software offered by good data recovery companies are effective, powerful and result oriented data recovery software which can recover every bit of your data from the damaged files.

You can try some good data recovery software available in the market which is specially developed for hard drive recovery, hard drive repair, hard disk recovery and partition data recovery.

These were some preventive measures with which you can save your data from becoming inaccessible.

Neha Gupta

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Spyware was in headlines for the first time in 1999 when a freeware game called ” Elf Bowling” circulated with spying software along with it. Since then spywares are creating a havoc in the computer world. Some of the downloadable software comes with a licensing agreement that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software. But most of us do not go through the agreement properly.
Spyware exists as independent executable programs. These malicious software have the ability to monitor keystrokes, change the default home page on the Web browser, read cookies, scan files on the hard drive, install other spyware programs and even spy other applications, such as chat programs or word processors. The spywares continuously relay this information back to the person who is spying. He will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party.

Steps of protecting your computer against spywares
Protecting against spywares is very essential to safeguard personal identity and other vital information. There are four essential steps that are essential to safeguard your computer against this malicious software.
* Updating the operating system regularly
* Installing an anti virus software and updating it regularly
* Utilizing the firewall software
* Utilizing the anti spyware software
Regularly updating of the operating system
It is always essential to install all security related programs as soon as possible. One of the best ways to do it is by utilizing the automatic update option in the computer. But the problem with this is if the computer components are not genuine but pirated ones, then the automatic updating of the operating system may work. So one has to buy genuine parts and software and keep updating regularly

Installing anti virus software
Anti virus software prevents viruses from getting attached to the programs in the computer and prevent them from corrupting the files. Many reliable anti virus software are available some of which are downloadable for free from the net. But one should regularly update the antivirus software to prevent danger from newer virus threats.

The Firewall utility
Hackers use viruses and Trojan Horses to find unprotected computers and access them to delete information, steal personal information or corrupt the files. Firewall security prevents these hackers from doing these. Three types of firewall security are available
* Hardware routers: for home networks connected to internet
* Wireless routers: for wireless network
* Software firewalls: for single computers

The Anti spyware software
The antispyware software protects the computer from those spying the web browsing habits of the victim, will prevent unwanted pop up windows and prevent uninitiated changes in the computer settings.

Markus Wahlgren

Technorati Tags: Amancio, antispyware, Defender, Microsoft, program, Rosas, windows

A virus (Latin, poison) is a microscopic particle that can infect the cells of a biological organism. At the most basic level, viruses consist of genetic material contained within a protective protein shell called a capsid; the existence of both genetic material and protein distinguishes them from other virus-like particles such as prions and viroids.

They infect a wide variety of organisms: both eukaryotes (animals, fungi and plants) and prokaryotes (bacteria). A virus that infects bacteria is known as a bacteriophage, often shortened to phage. The study of viruses is known as virology. A virologist studies viruses.

Viruses are the most dangerous threat to world health today, and colostrum is one of the few substances that can stop them from progressing in the body. Colds, flu, herpes and AIDS are caused by viruses, and there is no known cure for any of them yet. Dr Asimov,, author of hundreds of science and science fiction books, had this to say some yeas ago at The World Congress on the Virus in San Diego: “It is still possible for viruses to kill millions, ten of millions, maybe hundreds of millions every year.” Viruses mutate, so it is almost impossible to develop a drug that can also control the new forms a virus may take.

In the last few years, colostrum and a number of its individual components have been seriously studied for their effects against a variety of viral diseases. As with the bacteria pathogens, colostrum’s ability to help with viral infections is more likely due to immune support and the combination of substances than to any specific antibody reaction.

Colostrum anti-viral properties include:

-Lactoferrin, an iron binding protein with antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. It is currently being studied for its effects against the HIV virus, herpes, and even cancer.

- Cytokines, which regulate the intensity of the immune response. They are known to boost the production of antibodies important in fighting viral infections.

- Leukocytes, the white blood cells that engulf invading organisms, including viruses.

Antibiotics, the so-called miracle drugs used to combat so many bacteria illnesses, can’t harm a single known virus. Most virus-caused diseases can only be treated for their symptoms. How does our body’s natural immune system kill them? We find that antibodies made from immunoglobulins, can destroy them. I want to point out that only antibodies, tailor-made to match any virus, can keep up with the viruses’ tendency to mutate.

FYI Colostrum vs AIDS

The best example of immunodeficiency is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Individuals with AIDS have such a suppressed immune response that a cold or flu can be devastating. What often happens with AIDs patients is that they are left vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections that settle in the bowel, thereby causing diarrhea. A 1992 study with immune-deficient patients experiencing chronic diarrhea due to viral infections showed that 72 percent experienced stool normalization after 10 days of treatment with concentrated bovine colostral immunoglobulins. Other studies have shown similar results. For people suffering from immune suppression and immunodeficient patients, colostrum can be very helpful, perhaps even lifesaving.

For More Info On Bovine Colostrum, Visit :

http://www.BuyBovineColostrum.com

Reference

Plettenberg, A;et al. “A preparation from bovine colostrum in the treatment of HIV-positive patients with chronic diarrhea.” Clin Investing Jan; 71(1):42-5. 1993.

Farrell Seah

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Working on the Internet provides Internet marketers with the opportunity to make a living in the comfort of their own home.
For more detail go to: www.activities-little-fingers.com. Computer Security includes threats such as viruses, identity theft, and spy ware, aware to name but a few. The latest statistics show that at least over 900 new viruses are created each month which makes keeping track of them really quite difficult. This article would cover three (3) subtopics namely: The Internet, Spy ware and Antivirus.

Internet

If you use your computer on the internet, you need (at minimum) anti virus software. The problem of computer security is the number one problem in today’s networks and Internet engineering. As hackers use different means to crack the security systems it often happens to be impossible to resist and computer security system fail.

Computer Security on the internet is vital for home and business use as there are increasingly hostile environments when users surf the net. It is very important for users to be educated on the dangers they may face while on the internet. Your computer connected to the internet is similar to your house in many ways. Users search on the internet for free computer security software which they dump into their computers and hope for the best.

The Internet is a wonderful place. Anyone with an Internet connection can stay in touch with family and friends via email. Computer security is growing rapidly by the minute and the only one who has control over their files of information is the user. It is strongly suggested that users equip their pc with an armed fire wall for vital protection.

An advice is to use Microsoft Windows Update to keep your Operating System and Internet Explorer patched. Other advice could be to only conduct Internet transactions that have secured processing. for more detail go to:www.fire-itup.comEven if you have a computer connected to the Internet only to play the latest games or to send email to friends and family, your computer could be a target.

Although confidentiality, integrity and authenticity are the most important things when it comes to computer security in general, for everyday internet users, privacy is the most important one, because many people think that they have nothing to hide or the information they give doesn’t seem sensitive when they register with an internet service/site.

Spy ware

An avenue for Spy ware to infect your machine is through popular Peer-to-Peer File sharing software such as Kazan. Extreme spy ware like Root kits and other advanced spy ware have fundamentally changed the playing field in today’s computer security.

While it may seem to be common sense, many of the most widely-spread attacks have involved spy ware and email attachment worms. Often these packages come as “suites” including a firewall and Spy ware scanner. They scan and destroy spy ware as it’s found in the user’s computer.

Regardless of the type of spy ware, it can slow your computer to a crawl and needs to be removed from your computer. Spy ware occurs when certain websites run programs in the back ground of your computer while gleaning information from it. There is now a bill in the US Congress to make Spy ware illegal.

Aadhar

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Spyware exists as independent executable programs. These malicious software have the ability to monitor keystrokes, change the default home page on the Web browser, read cookies, scan files on the hard drive, install other spyware programs and even spy other applications, such as chat programs or word processors. The spywares continuously relay this information back to the person who is spying. He will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party. 

Steps of protecting your computer against spywares
Protecting against spywares is very essential to safeguard personal identity and other vital information. There are four essential steps that are essential to safeguard your computer against this malicious software.

Updating the operating system regularly

Installing an anti virus software and updating it regularly

Utilizing the firewall software

Utilizing the anti spyware software

Regularly updating of the operating system
It is always essential to install all security related programs as soon as possible. One of the best ways to do it is by utilizing the automatic update option in the computer. But the problem with this is if the computer components are not genuine but pirated ones, then the automatic updating of the operating system may work. So one has to buy genuine parts and software and keep updating regularly

ChiefJoboo’s Tech Tips – How to Clean, Speed Up, and Protect Your PC…Without the BS

Installing anti virus software
Anti virus software prevents viruses from getting attached to the programs in the computer and prevent them from corrupting the files. Many reliable anti virus software are available some of which are downloadable for free from the net. But one should regularly update the antivirus software to prevent danger from newer virus threats.

The Firewall utility
Hackers use viruses and Trojan Horses to find unprotected computers and access them to delete information, steal personal information or corrupt the files. Firewall security prevents these hackers from doing these. Three types of firewall security are available

Hardware routers: for home networks connected to internet

Wireless routers: for wireless network

Software firewalls: for single computers

The Anti spyware software
The antispyware software protects the computer from those spying the web browsing habits of the victim, will prevent unwanted pop up windows and prevent uninitiated changes in the computer settings.

Markus Wahlgren

Technorati Tags: 8.5, adware, anti-malware, avg, ccleaner, chiefjoboo, clean, computer, crash, error, fix, framework, how to clean my computer, malware, Malwarebytes, msi, noob, problem, registry, regseeker, spyware, superantispyware, virus

. The founder was a Taiwanese, the initial venue for the business was in California and right now, the head offices are in Tokyo.

Perhaps the most popular and world renowned product from trend Micro is its PC-cillin line of anti-virus programs. This Trend Micro software has been developed and designed to safeguard home networks, computers and even small networks. The name has been derived from the generic antibiotic drug penicillin, which is an effective biological drug that inhibits growth of bacteria and disease-causing organisms in the body. This Trend Micro software is an antivirus, an online security computer program. It has been rebranded and is currently known as Trend Micro Internet Security, which is also known in Japan, its home market as Virus Buster.

Another popular and well-known Trend Micro software is the HouseCall. This Trend Micro software is a freely distributed Internet-based scanner for viruses. The computer protection program regularly checks infection of the computer from any virus, malware and spyware. The Trend Micro software is facilitating additional security checks that determine and fix problems to help avoid reinfection.

Because the use of different and popular Trend Micro software has become very rampant these days, Trend Micro has made it a point to make services and features more useful so it could cater to more consumers and clients. As of the moment, there is a unit called TrendLabs, which is considered a worldwide threat response center. The center has been created to facilitate and assist the company’s research, customer assistance and information dissemination drives in order to serve its users better. There are base offices of the center in important markets like the United States, Japan, Germany, Australia, China, Germany, Taiwan, Dubai, New Zealand and Ireland.

Trend Micro software has been recorded in global IT history as the first computer protection program ever installed, integrated and used in an online email account service. In 2004, MSN Hotmail started using appropriate Trend Micro software to help scan attachments and email messages for potential imbedded viruses. The Trend Micro software displaced that time rival McAfee, which was then used by the MSN Premium services.

In 2006, Trend Micro software has become further useful and attractive with the launch and marketing of the IWSA or the Interscan Web Security Appliance. This Trend Micro software is the latest and modern addition to the line’s multi-layered approach in the protection of businesses and computer systems against different and notorious computer threats like viruses, phishing, spyware and grayware. Thus, Trend Micro software products that were already reliable even became further reliable and useful.

Because Trend Micro is a corporate business as well as a software firm, the company has also played actively in several mergers and acquisitions. As always, every merger just makes Trend Micro software portfolio stronger and broader. Since 2005, there have been four important acquisitions and mergers that have helped make Trend Micro software line more active and reliable. Such acquired companies are anti-spyware maker InterMute Inc, filtering software manufacturer Kelkea Inc, endpoint solutions firm Provilla Inc and cryptography provider Identum Ltd. With such acquisitions comes the integration of new computer protection software. Thus, through the years, the line of Trend Micro software has grown and further strengthened.

Bei M.

Technorati Tags: Apache, Behlendorf, Collabnet, CONNECT, FHA, Mozilla

Few greater security threats exist on the Internet than rogue security tools.  iSafe Antivirus is just one of many programs that were created with the thought that it wasn’t enough to just infect computers with advertising software.  They take it a step further, going from being merely annoying to being unapologetically criminal.

One could almost say with the presence of rogue security tools that adware and spyware are passé.  Rogue software like iSafe Antivirus certainly does represent a new generation of infections.  Unfortunately, it’s virtually impossible for the creators to be arrested and jailed at this time.

The concept that iSafe Antivirus and its ilk operate from is pretty simple.  Secretly infect a computer, make the user think that they’re the only ones who can get rid of it, charge them an arm and a leg for it, and don’t deliver as promised.  That’s the scam in summary.

“How does iSafe Antivirus infect a computer?” you might ask.  They lie in wait at infected websites.  The websites more often than not involve watching videos, especially ones that might involve copyright violations by their presence.  Adult content Web sites have been noted as being infected as well.  Web sites can be easily cloned, so there’s no sure answer on how to avoid them.

An infection from iSafe Antivirus begins the moment you click on an infected icon.  It shows you that you’re downloading a video codec, which is actually the Zlob Trojan Downloader.  This program bypasses your computer’s security and installs iSafe Antivirus.

From there, iSafe Antivirus takes over.  You get a pop-up that asks you if you want a scan, and regardless of your answer, it starts.  It then tells you that your computer has a virus infection.  Not just any virus infection, but the very mother of infections.  Your computer would have already crashed if it was true.

Then, iSafe Antivirus tells you that you have to get their full version to clean up your computer.  This is where the truly criminal part begins.  First of all, it’s a scam, if you’re lucky.  The software doesn’t work; it’s only a shell program.  But that’s not as bad as it gets.

There is full potential if you buy iSafe Antivirus that they will steal your identity.  Corrupt people have access to your credit account, and there’s really no telling what they’ll do with it.  Is that a risk that you’re willing to take?

Even if you avoid this problem, you still have to get rid of iSafe Antivirus.  That is, unless you like being interrupted every ten minutes by a so called virus scan.  It’s also set up to run every time you boot your computer, so a restart doesn’t lay it to rest, either.

To clarify a possible mistake when trying to get rid of iSafe Antivirus, you should know that it’s not a virus.  Rogue security tools are a bundle of spyware, so you should use an antispyware program, not an antivirus to get rid of them.  Make sure that you have the best available.

Carl Atkinson

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Internet

If you use your computer on the internet, you need (at minimum) anti virus software. The problem of computer security is the number one problem in today’s networks and Internet engineering. As hackers use different means to crack the security systems it often happens to be impossible to resist and computer security system fail.

Computer Security on the internet is vital for home and business use as there are increasingly hostile environments when users surf the net. It is very important for users to be educated on the dangers they may face while on the internet. Your computer connected to the internet is similar to your house in many ways. Users search on the internet for free computer security software which they dump into their computers and hope for the best.

The Internet is a wonderful place. Anyone with an Internet connection can stay in touch with family and friends via email. Computer security is growing rapidly by the minute and the only one who has control over their files of information is the user. It is strongly suggested that users equip their pc with an armed fire wall for vital protection.

An advice is to use Microsoft Windows Update to keep your operating system and Internet Explorer patched. Other advice could be to only conduct Internet transactions that have secured processing. for more detail go to:www.fire-itup.comEven if you have a computer connected to the Internet only to play the latest games or to send email to friends and family, your computer could be a target.

Although confidentiality, integrity and authenticity are the most important things when it comes to computer security in general, for everyday internet users, privacy is the most important one, because many people think that they have nothing to hide or the information they give doesn’t seem sensitive when they register with an internet service/site.

Spy ware

An avenue for Spy ware to infect your machine is through popular Peer-to-Peer File sharing software such as Kazan. Extreme spy ware like Root kits and other advanced spy ware have fundamentally changed the playing field in today’s computer security.

While it may seem to be common sense, many of the most widely-spread attacks have involved spy ware and email attachment worms. Often these packages come as “suites” including a firewall and Spy ware scanner. They scan and destroy spy ware as it’s found in the user’s computer.

Regardless of the type of spy ware, it can slow your computer to a crawl and needs to be removed from your computer. Spy ware occurs when certain websites run programs in the back ground of your computer while gleaning information from it. There is now a bill in the US Congress to make Spy ware illegal.

Aadhar

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