Journal articles on the topic 'Breed paddy'

Rice is the most important crop for worldwide consumers. The water utilization of rice planting is more than 50% of agricultural water in China, and it is necessary to breed water-saving and drought-resistant rice. The rice variety Dianheyou 615 can be planted in the paddy and upland fields, which satisfies rice production farmers in mountainous regions of Yunnan. We aimed to explore the variations in Magnaporthe oryzae isolates collected from Dianheyou 615 planted in paddy or upland fields. Through pathogenicity tests, we found that most isolates had the highest pathogenicities, but there were no significant differences between the paddy and upland isolates. By a combination of monogenetic and elite rice lines, with a further resistance assessment, the monogenetic lines with Pi9, Diantun 506, and Lvhan 1 displayed better resistances. Moreover, we re-sequenced 15 isolates to explore their genetic variations. Our results showed that the source of the upland isolates may have been the offspring of the paddy isolates, but there were many genes with specifically found SNPs in two populations that would develop subdivisions after long-time planting. Overall, we compared the pathogenicities and genetic variations in blast isolates from the planting of Dianheyou 615 in paddy and upland fields, which provided references for the influence of the planting environment on population subdivisions.

The present study was undertaken to investigate and compare the socio-economic characteristics and relative profitability of local breed and cross breed dairy cow rearing farmers. The focus of the present study was to quantify the costs and returns and to explore the interrelationship of factors affecting yield, cost and net return for the local and cross breed cows and also compare these with each other. On an average, local and cross breed dairy cow owners possessed 4.93 and 4.76 animals per household respectively. Per day total costs of rearing per local and cross breed cow were Tk.32.85 and Tk.71.23 respectively. Feed cost constituted about 58 percent of total cost for local breed cows while it was 62 percent for cross breed cows. Paddy cost occupied the largest share out of total feed cost in local breed cows. The average milk yield per day per cow was 1.89 litres and 7.68 litres for local breed and cross breed dairy cows respectively while the total return per day per cow was estimated at Tk.58.27 and Tk.224.76 for the same and the net returns per day per cow were Tk.25.42 and Tk.153.53. The study revealed that green grass, concentrate feed, labour cost and capital cost have significantly positive impact on milk yield for cross breed cows but all the inputs other than labour cost and capital cost have positive impact on milk yield for local breed cows. It was further observed that the resources were not efficiently used by both local breed and cross breed farms. It may be concluded that both local and cross breed dairy cow owners had a scope to reallocate their resources. However, it was found from the study that profitability of cross breed cows was higher than that of the local breed cows. The study identified some major problems and constraints as reported by farmers which were: lack of grazing land, lack of veterinary care and services, high price and scarcity of feed and fodder, low price of milk, etc. Finally, policy implications of the study were suggested. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jsf.v8i1-2.14616 J. Sci. Foundation, 8(1&2): 23-29, June-December 2010

This research was carried out at the Experimental Farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the 2018–2020 rice-growing seasons to develop and evaluate four iso-cytoplasmic rice-restorer lines: NRL79, NRL80, NRL81, and NRL82, as well as Giza 178, with ten new hybrids in order to estimate genotypic coefficient, phenotypic coefficient, heritability in a broad sense, and advantage over Giza 178 as a check variety (control) of new restorer lines. This study also estimated combining ability, gene action, better-parent heterosis (BP), mid-parent heterosis (MP), and standard heterosis (SH) over Egyptian Hybrid 1 (IR69A × Giza 178) as a check hybrid (control) for grain yield, agronomic traits, and some grain-quality characters in restorer lines and hybrids. The percentage of advantage over commercial-variety Giza 178 (check) was significant, and highly significant among the newly developed restorer fertility lines for all the studied traits. This indicates that the selection is a highly effective factor in improving these traits. New restorer fertility lines showed highly significant positive values over commercial restorer for grain yield; the values ranged from 51% for NRL80 to 100.4% for NRL82, respectively. Meanwhile, in regard to the grain shape of paddy rice, three lines of the promising lines showed highly significant negative desirable values compared with Giza 178; the values ranged from −7.7% for the NRL80 to −15.2% for NRL79, respectively. Based on the superiority of the new lines, the new lines can be used as new restorer fertility lines to breed promising new hybrids and new inbred rice lines or varieties. From the results of the testcross experiment, the four promising lines were identified as effective restorer fertility lines for two cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines. Moreover, the six rice hybrids showed values for SH heterosis of grain yield/plant of more than 15% over the check hybrid variety, with high values of 1000-grain weight and desirable grain shape; these hybrids were G46A × NRL81 (125.1%), G46A × NRL80 (66.9%), IR69A × NRL79 (47.2%), G46A × NRL79 (24.6%), IR69A × NRL81 (23.4%), and IR69A × NRL82 (16.2%).

Anopheles barbirostris and Anopheles subpictus are the primary vectors of malaria in East Nusa Tenggara. Anopheles mosquitoes generally breed at similar environment, including water streams, irrigation passages, water containers, paddy fields, impermanent ponds, water puddles, marsh, and brackish water. Modelling and spatial analysis play a role in identifying factors associated with potential breeding places for Anopheles mosquitoes, hence comprehension of breeding place characteristics and effective malaria control. The cross-sectional study used an observational-analytic approach. Study samples were identified larvae and breeding places of Anopheles spp. in Lifuleo village in West Kupang. We measured water salinity and pH, and we recorded coordinates of breeding places. Data analysis was performed by using Moran I index and spatial error model to identify factors associated with potential breeding places for Anopheles mosquitoes. Anopheles species found were An. barbirostris, An. subpictus, An. vagus, An. vagus var limosus, and An. indefinitus. All identified Anopheles larvae were found in brackish water, and in breeding places with high water salinity, with An. subpictus being able to survive the highest salinity (48‰). Univariate analysis demonstrated Io value of 0.00926, coefficient constant of 0.693868, and probability of 0.02252. The presence of Anopheles spp. was associated with breeding place habitat, daytime feeding, and presence of vegetations surrounding breeding places. Keywords: Anopheles spp, Lifuleo village, habitat characteristics, spatial. Abstrak Anopheles barbirostris dan Anopheles subpictus merupakan vektor primer malaria di Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur. Spesies Anopheles mempunyai habitat perkembangbiakan yang tidak sama yaitu aliran air, batas tangki, saluran irigiasi, sawah, kolam sementara, genangan air dekat pantai, genangan air di sungai, mata air, kolam ikan terlantar, rawa dan genangan air payau. Pemodelan dan analisis spasial dapat menjelaskan faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi habitat perkembangbiakan potensial bagi jentik Anopheles spp. Pengendalian malaria akan efektif apabila pengetahuan tentang karakteristik habitat perkembangbiakan dipelajari secara komprehensif. Metode penelitian menggunakan observasional analitik dengan pendekatan cross sectional. Sampel penelitian adalah seluruh habitat perkembangbiakan dan jentik Anopheles spp di Desa Lifuleo, Kecamatan Kupang Barat. Jentik diambil menggunakan pipet, kadar garam diukur menggunakan refractometer, pH diukur menggunakan pH meter dan koordinat diambil menggunakan aplikasi Avenza Maps yang terinstal pada Hand Phone android. Analisis data menggunakan Indeks Moran I dan Spatial Error Model untuk mencari faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi keberadaan jentik Anopheles spp. Spesies Anopheles yang ditemukan diantaranya; An. barbirostris, An. subpictus, An. vagus, An. vagus var limosus, dan An. indefinitus. Seluruh spesies Anopheles hidup pada habitat yang mengandung kadar garam tetapi An. subpictus mampu beradaptasi pada kadar garam tertinggi (48‰). Analisis univariat diperoleh Io sebesar 0.00926. Nilai Coefficient Constant sebesar 0,693868 dengan probability sebesar 0,02252. Spesies Anopheles yang hidup pada air payau yaitu An. barbirostris, An. subpictus, An. indefinitus, An. vagus, An. vagus varietas limosus. Keberadaan jentik Anopheles spp dipengaruhi oleh tipe habitat perkembangbiakan, Anopheles mengisap siang hari, dan adanya tanaman di habitat perkembangbiakan. Kata kunci: Anopheles spp, Desa Lifuleo, karakteristik habitat, spasial

In agriculture sector, the effect of climate change seems to have become inevitable during the last few decades. Hence, the technologies for climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) are probably the best adaptation solutions currently available to improve the resilience of agriculture. The study to access the extent of adoption of CRA technologies by the farmers in the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project implemented villages of Suryapet and Khammam districts in Telangana state was conducted during 2021-22. Total 200 farmers from these two districts were selected randomly to evaluate the adoption status of recommended CRA technologies and its association with the respondents’ profile characteristics. The respondents had adopted CRA technologies at medium to high levels with the majority of beneficiaries adopting technologies like deep ploughing, in-situ moisture conservation technologies in cotton and red gram, crop diversification from paddy to jowar and vegetables as a contingent crop, improved variety of paddy Siddhi WGL-44 and improved backyard poultry breeds. The profile characteristics viz., education, annual income, land holding, individual and mass media exposure, economic motivation, risk-taking ability, and innovative proneness had a positive and significant association with the extent of adoption of CRA technologies.

Present study was confined to Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. In this study Nagrota Bagwan block was selected randomly. A list of farmers, who had borrowed agricultural loan, was obtained from different banks and a sample of 50 beneficiaries was obtained from this block. The existing agricultural credit system in the study area showed that, Punjab National Bank, Himachal Gramin Bank,The Kangra Central Co-operative Bank and State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of India were operating.Overall % accessibility of sampled beneficiaries to the credit indicated that about 90 % of the loan applied was sanctioned by the institutions. Borrowing through Kisan Credit Card was the highest. State Bank of Patiala was the most important source of borrowings. Cost of borrowing was also found to be low. After availing the financial assistance, the investment on the farm machinery and implements increased substantially followed by investment on livestock. The overall change in investment was calculated to be about 28 %. Paddy and potato had the highest shift in area. The area under paddy increased by 30.76 % and 23.52 % in case of potato. Area under maize (HYV) increased by 10 % while in case of vegetable the increase was 14.28 %. Area under maize (local) and wheat decreased by 35.71 % and 14.63 % respectively. Maximum increase in fertilizer application was observed in potato (22.39 %), followed bymaize (21.62 %) and cucumber (18 %). The increase in productivity of cucumber was found to be highest (26.70 %), followed by paddy (15.01 %), potato (15.33 %), and vegetables (12.76 %). Productivity of maize (10 %) increased but in less proportion as compared to other crops. There was substantial increase in milk yield of Cross Bred Cow. The average annual income per household increased by about 10 %. The study recommends that there is a need for more awareness about lending among farmers from the institutional sources. Further, loans through Kisan Credit Card were quite high thus efforts should be made so that maximum farmers have Kisan Credit Card and can avail the bank loans without any difficulty.

Direct-seeding of rice on dry paddy soil could enable large-scale cultivation and cost-savings, but still has some problems including poor seedling establishment caused by low temperature and varied sowing depth. This research was performed to identify weedy rice genetic resources that may help to eliminate the problem of poor seedling establishment in direct-seeded rice on dry paddy soil in temperate regions. The genetic resources screened in this study were 128 genotypes consisting of 92 japonica weedy rices, 24 indica weedy rices, and 12 Korean bred cultivars. On average, weedy rice germplasm had superior abilities to emerge from greater depths than cultivated rices. Coleoptile and mesocotyl lengths were highly positively correlated with the emergence rate. Among the weedy rice germplasm, the japonica weedy rice WD-3 showed the highest level of emergence with the longest coleoptile and mesocotyl. The emergence ability of WD-3 was confirmed in both phytotron and field conditions. In the emerged plants in the field, the mesocotyl elongation increased with increasing burial depth in a logarithmic fashion, and coleoptile extension increased exponentially. The mesocotyl and coleoptile elongated to a length of seed burial depth, indicating that the mesocotyl and coleoptile of WD-3 could induce the safe development of the first leaf of the seedling at the soil surface. Therefore, the elongation habit of the mesocotyl and coleoptile of WD-3 could be one of the most important characteristics for the development of direct-seeding cultivars.

This work was undertaken to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of Kamela (Mallotus philippensis) leaf meal as herbal feed additive on nutrients utilization and growth performance of growing crossbred calves. Ten numbers of growing Jersey male cross-bred calves were divided in to two groups (G1 and G2) and were fed individually under stall feeding on a paddy straw based mixed ration (50% paddy straw and 50% concentrate mixture) for 140 days. Two types (C1 and C2) of iso-nitrogenous concentrate mixtures were prepared. Wheat bran in concentrate mixture (C2) of test group (G2) was partially replaced (4 parts w/w) with sun dried ground Mallotus philippensis leaf meal. Experimental calves of test group (G2) fed Mallotus philippensis leaf meal @ 2% of the diet. Daily dry matter intake (g/d) was similar among the calves of two experimental groups. Apparent digestibility of DM, OM, NDF, ADF and cellulose were higher in the Mallotus philippensis leaf meal fed calves (G2). DCP value of the ration was similar while, TDN value of the ration was higher in the calves of Mallotus philippensis leaf meal supplemented group (G2). However, plane of nutrition among the calves of both experimental groups was similar. Average finishing body weight, daily body weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and blood glucose level were higher in Mallotus philippensis leaf fed calves (G2). The results of the study indicated that dietary supplementation Kamela (Mallotus philippensis) leaf meal as herbal feed additive @ 2% of total diet significantly improved the performance in growing male crossbred calves.

Food diversification based on local food is one of the alternative efforts in anticipating foodcrises. Basically, the food consumption patterns of the population will generally be different andchange over time, where youth have a strategic role in the future. Therefore, this study aims torecord the current preference of a potential substitute for rice. The research was conducted inthe area of the Banau College of Agriculture and Entrepreneurship, West Halmahera Regency,North Maluku. The results of the study indicate that there has been a change in the pattern ofyouth staple food consumption from local foods such as sago to rice. Based on consumptionpatterns, only some youths make sago a staple food. Rice is still the main preference of youthas staple food in everyday life. While sago is the second priority as a staple food in the menu ofyouth consumption patterns. There are several factors that cause changes in consumptionpatterns, including: 1) development policies and food policies on one food commodity, namelyrice; 2) Conversion of sago forests into paddy fields; 3) public perception of sago; and 4) theculture of eating rice brought by transmigrants. Therefore, systematic efforts are needed fromboth the government, the private sector and the community to achieve food security. The localgovernment is expected to be able to promote food diversification programs. The private sectorcan develop local food (sago) into derivative products that can be accepted by the widercommunity, such as noodles, bread, flour, cakes, etc. From the community side, efforts todiversify can be started from the family by diversifying daily staple foods. Society as thesmallest unit in a country has an important role in the success of food diversification.

Drought and limited availability of water serve as the serious limitation for rice production in rainfed ecosystems. Among the major rainfed rice-cultivating areas, states of eastern India occupy one of the largest drought-prone ecologies in the world. Cultivating drought tolerant rice varieties can serve as the most coherent approach to ensure food security in these areas. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), along with its national collaborators, has developed drought tolerant rice varieties possessing high yield along with desirable grain quality. One such conventionally bred line, IR74371-70-1-1, has been released with different names in the different countries: in India as Sahbhagi Dhan, in Nepal as Sukha Dhan 3, and in Bangladesh as BRRI Dhan 56. This indicates the suitability of this line to show better performance across the wide range of environments. Sahbhagi Dhan is a short duration variety that has genetic drought tolerance and is more efficient at extracting available moisture from the soil. During drought years, farmers cultivating Sahbhagi Dhan obtained the yield advantage of 0.8 to 1.6 t ha−1 over currently grown long duration as well as traditional varieties. In 2012, when the paddy crop was hit by drought, Sahbhagi Dhan revealed the yield advantage of more than a t ha−1, which reduced to 0.78 and 0.56 t ha−1 during non-drought years of 2013 and 2014, respectively. Data taken from head to head trials during 2017 showed that Sahbhagi Dhan exhibited better performance over the existing rice varieties grown by farmers even under non-drought conditions. The important feature of Sahbhagi Dhan is its evident impact under drought and no yield penalty under favorable conditions over the counterfactual varieties of the same duration. Along with better yield under drought, the important advantage of Sahbhagi Dhan is the short maturity duration of this variety. This allows the farmers to advance the succeeding crop and creates an opportunity for accommodating an additional crop under favorable rainfed ecology, thereby enhancing the cropping intensity. Since the majority of the farmers living in drought prone ecologies are socio-economically under privileged, Sahbhagi Dhan, along with other drought tolerant varieties, can serve as one of the most viable and deliverable technologies for eradicating poverty from these ecologies dependent on rainfed rice.

Kathani cattle is not a registered cattle breed, consequently, these animals are categorized as non-descript animals in the Livestock Census of the Government of India. The population is about 10.51 lakh. Data of 9474 animals spread over 118 villages distributed in 13 tehsils of 3 districts (Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, and Gondia) from the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra was collected under the survey, evaluation, and characterization network project of NBAGR, Karnal, during November 2017 to March 2020 and analyzed to document the physical characteristics, management, and performance of a new cattle breed available/found in Maharashtra state. Qualitative body part characters indicated that almost all animals had black coloured muzzle, eyelid, eyeball, hooves, tail switch. Biometry recorded included eight different body measurements in different age and sex groups. When compared with Gaolao, Kosali, Motu, and Ongole breeds of cattle from adjoining breeding tracts, molecular as well as phenotypic differentiation indicated separate genetic identities of the Kathani cattle. Nearly 96% Kathani cattle owners were found to provide housing to their animals and about 87% of respondents provided shelter during the night only while 7.4% provided both during day and night. Respondents (74.70%) cultivated fodder for their animals and general fodder in the area was leftover (after crop harvest) of paddy locally called Tanis, and soybeans, mung, wheat, cowpea, chickpea, pigeon pea, black gram locally called Kutar. The feed and fodder laboratory analysis revealed that Kathani animals were reared on very low nutritive value content like Tanis and different types of Kutars. Natural service was the preferred breeding method adopted by 94.8% and 5.2% of owners bred their animals through artificial insemination with the semen of exotic breed bulls. Kathani cattle keepers (61.9%) in the survey area experienced incidence of some of the contagious diseases and 72.55% of cattle holders vaccinatad their animals against these contagious diseases. The average age at first ejaculate for Kathani cattle males was 35.84±0.31 months, age at first calving was 54.86±0.05 months, calving interval was 486.85±0.51 days, daily milk yield was 0.55±0.01 litres, lactation length was 237.76±1.82 days and dry period noticed was 245.75±2.28 days. The study results will flag the way for the registration of the population as a new cattle breed and for the formulation of a breeding program for further improvement of this lesser-known cattle population.

Background: The Sahiwal cattle, one of the best dairy breeds of Zebu cattle in India and Pakistan, originated from the Montgomery district of Pakistan. The performance of this breed in the tropical environment is also better than other cattle breeds. Now a day Sahiwal is choice of farmers in Maharashtra as it is a milch type breed mostly preferred for Deshi cow milk production and for organic farming. Blood profile of an individual is an important indicator of an individual’s well-being. Normal blood levels of various biochemical components are essential for normal function of various systems in the body including reproductive system. Hence, the current study was aimed to evaluate of serum biochemical profile of Sahiwal cows reared in Pune district of Maharashtra. Pune district of Maharashtra comes under western Maharashtra plain zone with Grayish black soils. The annual rainfall ranges from 150 to 700 mm. Soils formed from trap rock are grayish black in colour and varying texture. The natural vegetation is of shrub. The area mostly grows paddy, sugarcane, pearl millet, sorghum and groundnut. Methods: Serum biochemical profile of Sahiwal heifers and cows were evaluated at different stages i.e. below 1 year heifer, above 1 year heifer, early lactating cow, mid lactating cow, late lactating cow, dry pregnant cow and dry non pregnant cows. Total seventy (70) animals was selected i.e. ten (10) animals from each group stage. All animals were maintained under standard feeding and management conditions. The blood samples of selected cows were collected by puncturing in jugular vein in heparinized vacationer tubes. Analysis of serum profile of 70 blood samples were carried out by using automatic blood analyzer machine (Miura 200 I.S.E. group, Italy). Result: The concentrations of serum cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride, uric acid, calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, total protein, globulin, A: G ratio ALP, ALT and AST were significant in different stages of Sahiwal cows. The non-significant difference was observed in different stages of Sahiwal cows in regards to serum concentration of amylase, bilirubin direct, bilirubin total, creatinine, urea, albumin, magnesium, iron and GGT.

Abiotic stresses adversely affect rice yield and productivity, especially under the changing climatic scenario. Exposure to multiple abiotic stresses acting together aggravates these effects. The projected increase in global temperatures, rainfall variability, and salinity will increase the frequency and intensity of multiple abiotic stresses. These abiotic stresses affect paddy physiology and deteriorate grain quality, especially milling quality and cooking characteristics. Understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms behind grain quality reduction under multiple abiotic stresses is needed to breed cultivars that can tolerate multiple abiotic stresses. This review summarizes the combined effect of various stresses on rice physiology, focusing on grain quality parameters and yield traits, and discusses strategies for improving grain quality parameters using high-throughput phenotyping with omics approaches.

AbstractIncreasing the application of nitrogen fertilizer is the main approach to increase rice production, but it also brings problems of environmental pollution and increases agricultural production costs. Cultivating high‐yielding and high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) rice varieties is an important approach to solving this problem. The rice varieties carrying dep1 (dense and erect panicle 1) have both high grain yield and high NUE. However, their plant traits have not been fully explored. In this study, two rice near‐isogenic lines carrying dep1 (NIL‐DEP1 and NIL‐dep1) were grown in paddy fields under 0, 120 and 270 kg N ha−1. We analyzed agronomic traits of panicle type, plant type, leaves and roots, and physiological traits of vascular bundles, photosynthetic rate and carbon and nitrogen transport. The results showed that the NIL‐dep1 exhibited higher grain yield and NUE than NIL‐DEP1, mainly due to the higher spikelet number per panicle, grain filling percentage and dry matter production. Compared with NIL‐DEP1, NIL‐dep1 had improved flag leaf morpho–physiological traits, including erect flag leaves, greater leaf thickness and specific leaf weight, higher root dry weight, root length, root volume and root surface area, and a better canopy structure, as reflected by a lower light interception percent and canopy extinction coefficient, leading to better photosynthetic performance and dry matter production. In addition, NIL‐dep1 exhibited better vascular bundle traits of peduncle and enhanced dry matter, stem carbon and nitrogen translocation during grain filling. In conclusion, NIL‐dep1 had high grain yield and NUE by improved agronomic and physiological traits and increasing carbon and nitrogen translocation during grain filling. These traits mentioned above could be used to select and breed high grain yield with high NUE rice varieties.

Rice is the most important staple of the Malaysian and paddy is the second most produced crop of the nation. Traditionally, population rise generates higher demand for milled rice in Malaysia. However, in the past 30 years, milled rice production in Malaysia has been falling short of the demand, prompting import of rice from other nations. The impact of climate change on paddy yield is foreseen to widen the gap of local supply and demand. Increasing temperature has been shown to be more damaging to paddy yield than rainfall variation. 1% increase in temperature could result in 3.44% drop in current paddy yield while a 1% increase in rainfall could cut current paddy yield by 0.12%. With rising temperature, increasing CO2 concentration is not predicted to enhance paddy yield though the photosynthetic rate of paddy depends on atmospheric CO2 concentration. This implies a more deleterious effect of temperature on paddy yield. Draught ensuing rainfall variability can also severely reduce paddy yield. Adaptation of paddy farmers to the impacts of climate change is crucial and this can be achieved with technology advancement in agricultural practices as well as research and development of new paddy breeds. Keywords: Climate change; Malaysia; Paddy; Rice; Yield

Background: Celosia argentea, commonly known as plumed cockscomb, is a herbaceous plant of tropical origin and has 19.78% crude protein and is equal to leguminous fodder. It is highly palatable by animals. The study was designed to find out the chemical composition of the plant at summer and monsoon season and also to conserve it as fodder block for feeding ruminants during feed shortage. Methods: Fodder block was prepared by using paddy straw (60%), Celosia argentea plant (30%), 7.5% refined wheat flour, 2% mineral mixture and 1% salt. The fodder blocks were assessed for physical, chemical and IVDMD tests. Three treatments such as paddy straw and Desmanthus fodder (T1), paddy straw and Celosia argentea fodder (T2), paddy straw and Celosia argentea block (T3) were used for palatability trial in eighteen cross bred heifers. Trial was conducted for a period of one month. Daily feed intake (kg/day), initial and final body weight was measured. Data was analysed by using SPS software. Result: Significant variations (P less than 0.01) were observed in the proximate composition of Celosia argentea fodder between monsoon and summer season. The prepared fodder blocks with Celosia argentea had bulk density of 70.15 kg/m3, relative hardness of 12.36 mm and durability of 89.22%. The chemical composition of fodder blocks (dry matter - 90.3%, crude protein - 10.28%, ether extract - 1.6%, crude fibre - 16.25%, total ash - 13.26%, nitrogen free extract - 58.35%, Ca - 1.05% and P - 0.53%) were found to lie in the normal range. The IVDMD of fodder block is 48.52%. Average daily dry matter intake of heifers fed with T3 was higher (P less than 0.01) compared to heifers fed with T1 and T2. The body weight of heifers fed with all treatments did not change during trial period. Celosia argentea can be utilized as alternate to Desmanthus fodder and can be preserved as fodder block along with paddy straw for use during fodder deficit seasons.

Functional beer brewed with a high bioactive compound ingredients is beneficial to prevent many diseases. Rice and fruit by-products are rich in bioactive compounds and have a potential for functional beer production. The aim of the present work was to assess the physicochemical, nutritional and sensorial properties of the beer brewed with rice and fruit by-products. The five formulas of beer investigated were the dried malt extract, Phitsanulok paddy rice powder, riceberry powder, banana peel and coffee pulp. The ratio of the dried malt extract and the other alternative ingredients was 80:20. The contents in reducing sugar, total phenolic compounds, flavonoid, chlorogenic acid, caffeine and dietary fiber were evaluated. The correlations between the physicochemical, sensorial, antioxidant properties and acceptability of beers were assessed by the Principal Component Analysis. The results showed that beers were differed in color density and have a low alcohol content. Among beer formula, beers brewed with coffee pulp was the richest in total phenolic and beers brewed with banana peel was the richest in flavonoid content (278.82 mg gallic acid equivalent/ L beer and 69.18 mg catechin equivalent/ L respectively). The antioxidant capacity was the highest in banana peel beer formula (76.64%). The Principal Component Analysis revealed that beers brewed with the two varieties of rice powder formula were in the same group of beer control (dried malt extract formula). These beers were characterized by a high note of appreciation from consumer. Whereas, a high correlation between the antioxidant capacity and total polyphenolic, flavonoid content was observed in beer fruit by-products formulas. The incorporation of two varieties of rice powder or fruit by-products was feasible in brewing process to produce a functional ale beer appreciated by customer and having a noticeable antioxidant capacity.

High yielding varieties of cereal crops were the major contributors to India's Green Revolution in 1960s and till date these varieties have been largely contributing to India's bread basket. Uttarakhand is primarily an agricultural state although its share in the country's total area and production is negligible. In this paper the authors have attempted to measure the technical and economic efficiencies of improved varieties of paddy and wheat in lower Shivalik hills of Uttarakhand during 2017-20. Uttarakhand is primarily an agricultural state although its share in the country's total area and production is negligible. Economic efficiencies of the varieties were measured by benefit-cost ratio (BCR) andnet return (NR). Technical efficiencies were measured by Box plot technique in R software. Kernal density plot was used to represent yield variation among the varieties. The findings revealed that PB 1121 paddy and HD 2967 wheat respectively were the best varieties in terms of technical efficiency (productivity) and economic efficiency (BCR andNet Return). Estimates of t-test also show the significant differences in BCR and net return between improved and local varieties. Thus, study shows that the positive impacts of improved varieties of the major crops have significantly contributed to productivity, farm income and livelihood in the lower Shivalik hills of Uttarakhand which, in turn, mayprovide prospective implications towards country's total production and food security.

The state of Kerala in India has predominantly an agrarian economy, with crop production providing the major income for farmers. The economy is also supported by animal husbandry in many of the farm households. Geographically Kerala lies in the tropical rain forest belt with a two season pattern and two monsoons spread over eight months. The main food crops are paddy and tapioca, while the cash crops grown are coconut, rubber, pepper, cashews, tea, coffee and spices. The population density is one of the highest in the world with 654 people per km2, therefore placing extraordinary pressure on land availability for crops and cattle. The native non-descript zebu-type cattle of Kerala, evolved over long periods, are poor in milk and reproductive performance but have adapted very well to the tropical environment with regards to heat and disease resistance. The local zebu are small in stature with an average body weight of 150-250 kg standing 1.1-1.2 meters high. The average age at first calving is 51 months and the average lactation yield is estimated at 500-700 kg/200 days.1,2 The average calving interval is long at 21 months2. The number of AI per conception is 2. 4 for field animals2.These non-descript zebu type cattle could not satisfy the milk needs of the state. To improve the milk production to 1500 L per lactation by genetic improvement alone would have taken 150-200 years. Replacement of local stock with exotic dairy breeds was not practical. Past experience has shown that transplantation of such temperate breeds into the tropical rain forest climate is not economical because of poor adaptability, susceptibility to tropical diseases and non-availability of suitable management. Therefore, a programme of limited crossbreeding of local zebu cattle with Bos taurus dairy breeds was implemented as a practical means enhancing the milk yield. Crossbreeding offered the most promising approach to evolve a type of cow which could be maintained economically under prevailing village conditions. The purpose of this paper is to present data supporting crossbreeding between local nondescript milk breeds with top genetic material of temperate Bos taurus milk breeds, as the best currently available means to converse local poor producing cattle into crossbreds of high productivity.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of Da qing shu (Ficus hookeri) leaf meal as herbal feed additive on nutrients utilization and growth performance of growing crossbred calves. Ten Jersey male cross-bred calves (~ 4 months of age) were divided equally into two groups (G1 and G2) and were fed ad lib. under stall feeding on a paddy straw based mixed ration consisting of 50% paddy straw and 50% concentrate mixture for a duration of 140 days. Two types (C1 and C2) of iso-nitrogenous concentrate mixtures were prepared. Four per cent (w/w) wheat bran in concentrate mixture (C2) of test group (G2) was replaced by sun dried ground Ficus hookeri leaf meal. Experimental calves of test group (G2) were fed Ficus hookeri leaf meal @ 2% of the diet. Daily dry matter intake (g/d) was similar among the calves of two experimental groups. Apparent digestibility of DM, OM, NDF, ADF and cellulose improved in the Ficus hookeri leaf meal fed calves (G2). DCP value of the ration was similar while, TDN value of the ration was higher in the calves of Ficus hookeri leaf meal supplemented group (G2). However, plane of nutrition among the calves of both experimental groups was similar. Average finishing body weight, daily body weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and blood glucose level were higher in Ficus hookeri leaf fed calves (G2). Therefore, it may be concluded from the results of the study that dietary supplementation of Da qing shu (Ficus hookeri) leaf meal as herbal feed additive @ 2% of total mixed diet significantly improved the fibre digestibility, average daily body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency in growing Jersey male crossbred calves.

As per Economic Survey of Punjab, (2019-20), Punjab alone contributed more than 1/4 and 1/3 of the central pool of rice and th rd wheat respectively in 2018-19 and accordingly named as bread-basket of India. However, such a huge contribution was due to the structural transformation of agriculture in Punjab under the Green Revolution. Such transformation leads to intensive use of natural resources with mono-culture of wheat-paddy till today, which put a big question mark on the sustainability issue of agriculture in Punjab. The present study was exclusively based on secondary data, covering the period of 1965-66 to 2018-2019, almost 55 years. Hirschman Herfindhal index and Simpson Diversity index were used to determine the extent of concentration and diversification in the cropping pattern of Punjab agriculture. The results highlight the facts that level of diversification was declining and the level of concentration was increasing. Moreover, Compound Growth Rate (CGR) of yield was either stagnating or declining over the years. Not only this, based on the index of agriculture production, the trend values were negative since the 21 century. Accordingly, st intensive agricultural practices should be stopped, and diversification should get priority in such a way that food security is not jeopardized.

A study of 90 days duration was conducted on 18 multiparous crossbred cows (363±14kg, body weight; in II or III lactation; 3,000-4,500kg milk yield per lactation) randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments with 6 animals in each group in a completely randomized design to investigate the effect of two slow release non protein nitrogen (SRNPN) products on feed intake, milk yield, milk composition, blood biochemical parameters and cost economics. The concentrate mixture for control group was formulated with maize, gram husk, ground nut cake, wheat bran, deoiled rice bran, salt and mineral mixture. The other two experimental concentrate mixtures were prepared by totally replacing ground nut cake with calcium salts of fatty acid coated urea (CFCU) and Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose coated urea (HMCCU) at 2.42%. The cows were offered fixed quantity of Napier green fodder (10kg/cow/day) and ad libitum paddy straw. The daily allowance of respective concentrate mixture offered to each cow was calculated based on body weight, previous week milk yield and roughage intake to meet the nutrient requirements of as per ICAR (2013). Incorporation of either of the coated urea products in concentrate mixtures did not affect the total DM intake, milk yield (13.94 to 14.11kg/d), milk composition (Milk fat, Protein, SNF and Lactose) and blood biochemical (Blood urea nitrogen, Glucose and total protein). Though non significant, the average daily cost of feeding (Rs/d) was lowered in CFCU (228.14) and HMCCU (215.98) diet fed cows compared to control group cows (237.08) by 3.77 and 8.89% respectively. Whereas, the cost of feeding (Rs) per kg milk production differed significantly (P<0.01) with highest in control diet fed group (16.80) while in CFCU (15.43) and HMCCU (15.49) fed group it was lower. CFCU and HMCCU can be included at 1% of dry matter or 2.42% in the concentrate replacing the conventional protein sources, without affecting the milk yield and its composition in cross bred cows and reducing the feed cost per kg milk production.

Livestock production is the backbone of Indian agriculture and source of employment in rural areas since centuries, in which the entire system of rural economy has revolved around it. Livestock was revealed with multi-faceted contribution to socio-economic development of rural masses. Due to the inelastic absorptive capacity for labour in other economic sectors, livestock sector has greater scope for generating more employment opportunities, especially for the marginal and small farmers and landless labourers who own around 70 per cent of the country’s livestock. The study was conducted to know the role of livestock in farmer’s economy in North-eastern Karnataka (NEK) region of Karnataka state. In the study area milch buffaloes were reared by the farmers as they preferred buffalo milk for home consumption than cow milk. Further, it was easier to maintain buffaloes than cross-bred milch cow. All the farmers used paddy crop as dry fodder since they produced it, but landless labourers purchased the same. For each litre of milk produced the marketed surplus was 88 and 90 per cent for crossbred and local cow milk followed by 84 and 80 per cent for crossbred and local buffalo milk. The total income from dairy enterprise was earned by large and small farmers with relatively higher than landless labourers and marginal farmers, which was due to the large and small farmers had maintained more number of crossbred cows than landless labourers and marginal farmers.

Abstract Background Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) was first recognized in Sri Lanka in the early 1990s, and since then it has reached epidemic levels in the North Central Province of the country. The prevalence of CKDu is reportedly highest among communities that engage in chena and paddy farming, which is most often practiced in the dry zone including the North Central and East Central Provinces of Sri Lanka. Previous studies have suggested varied hypotheses for the etiology of CKDu; however, there is not yet a consensus on the primary risk factors, possibly due to disparate study designs, sample populations, and methodologies. Methods The goal of this pilot case-control study was to evaluate the relationships between key demographic, cultural, and occupational variables as risk factors for CKDu, with a primary interest in pesticide exposure both occupationally and through its potential use as an ingredient in brewed kasippu alcohol. An extensive one health focused survey was developed with in cooperation with the Centre for Research, Education, and Training on Kidney Diseases of Sri Lanka. Results A total of 56 CKDu cases and 54 control individuals were surveyed using a proctored, self-reported questionnaire. Occupational pesticide exposure and alcohol consumption were not found to be significant risk factors for CKDu. However, a statistically significant association with CKDu was observed with chewing betel (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 6.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.93, 19.35), age (aOR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13), owning a pet dog (aOR: 3.74, 95% CI: 1.38, 10.11), water treatment (aOR: 3.68, 95% CI: 1.09, 12.43) and pests in the house (aOR: 5.81, 95% CI: 1.56, 21.60). Conclusions The findings of this study suggest future research should focus on practices associated with chewing betel, potential animal interactions including pests in the home and pets, and risk factors associated with water.

The use of the family home as a setting for television sitcoms (situation comedies) has long been recognised for its ability to provide audiences with an identifiable site of ontological security (much discussed by Giddens, Scannell, Saunders and others). From the beginnings of American sitcoms with such programs as Leave it to Beaver, and through the trail of The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and on to Home Improvement, That 70s Show and How I Met Your Mother, the US has led the way with screenwriters and producers capitalising on the value of using the suburban family dwelling as a fixed setting. The most obvious advantage is the use of an easily constructed and inexpensive set, most often on a TV studio soundstage requiring only a few rooms (living room, kitchen and bedroom are usually enough to set the scene), and a studio audience. In Singapore, sitcoms have had similar successes; portraying the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in their home settings. Some programs have achieved phenomenal success, including an unprecedented ten year run for Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd from 1996-2007, closely followed by Under One Roof (1994-2000 and an encore season in 2002), and Living with Lydia (2001-2005). This article furthers Blunt and Dowling’s exploration of the “critical geography” of home, by providing a focused analysis of home-based sitcoms in the nation-state of Singapore. The use of the home tells us a lot. Roseanne’s cluttered family home represents a lived reality for working-class families throughout the Western world. In Friends, the seemingly wealthy ‘young’ people live in a fashionable apartment building, while Seinfeld’s apartment block is much less salubrious, indicating (in line with the character) the struggle of the humble comedian. Each of these examples tells us something about not just the characters, but quite often about class, race, and contemporary societies. In the Singaporean programs, the home in Under One Roof (hereafter UOR) represents the major form of housing in Singapore, and the program as a whole demonstrates the workability of Singaporean multiculturalism in a large apartment block. Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (PCK) demonstrates the entrepreneurial abilities of even under-educated Singaporeans, with its lead character, a building contractor, living in a large freestanding dwelling – generally reserved for the well-heeled of Singaporean society. And in Living with Lydia (LWL) (a program which demonstrates Singapore’s capacity for global integration), Hong Kong émigré Lydia is forced to share a house (less ostentatious than PCK’s) with the family of the hapless Billy B. Ong. There is perhaps no more telling cultural event than the sitcom. In the 1970s, The Brady Bunch told us more about American values and habits than any number of news reports or cop shows. A nation’s identity is uncovered; it bares its soul to us through the daily tribulations of its TV households. In Singapore, home-based sitcoms have been one of the major success stories in local television production with each of these three programs collecting multiple prizes at the region-wide Asian Television Awards. These sitcoms have been able to reflect the ideals and values of the Singaporean nation to audiences both at ‘home’ and abroad. This article explores the worlds of UOR, PCK, and LWL, and the ways in which each of the fictional homes represents key features of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Singapore. Through ownership and regulation, Singaporean TV programs operate as a firm link between the state and its citizens. These sitcoms follow regular patterns where the ‘man of the house’ is more buffoon than breadwinner – in a country defined by its neo-Confucian morality, sitcoms allow a temporary subversion of patriarchal structures. In this article I argue that the central theme in Singaporean sitcoms is that while home is a personal space, it is also a valuable site for national identities to be played out. These identities are visible in the physical indicators of the exterior and interior living spaces, and the social indicators representing a benign patriarchy and a dominant English language. Structure One of the key features of sitcoms is the structure: cold open – titles – establishing shot – opening scene. Generally the cold opening (aka “the teaser”) takes place inside the home to quickly (re)establish audience familiarity with the location and the characters. The title sequence then features, in the case of LWL and PCK, the characters outside the house (in LWL this is in cartoon format), and in UOR (see Figure 1) it is the communal space of the barbeque area fronting the multi-story HDB (Housing Development Board) apartment blocks. Figure 1: Under One Roof The establishing shot at the end of each title sequence, and when returning from ad breaks, is an external view of the characters’ respective dwellings. In Seinfeld this establishing shot is the New York apartment block, in Roseanne it is the suburban house, and the Singaporean sitcoms follow the same format (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Phua Chu Kang External Visions of the Home This emphasis on exterior buildings reminds the viewer that Singaporean housing is, in many ways, unique. As a city-state (and a young one at that) its spatial constraints are particularly limiting: there simply isn’t room for suburban housing on quarter acre blocks. It rapidly transformed from an “empty rock” to a scattered Malay settlement of bay and riverside kampongs (villages) recognisable by its stilt houses. Then in the shadow of colonialism and the rise of modernity, the kampongs were replaced in many cases by European-inspired terrace houses. Finally, in the post-colonial era high-rise housing began to swell through the territory, creating what came to be known as the “HDB new town”, with some 90% of the population now said to reside in HDB units, and many others living in private high-rises (Chang 102, 104). Exterior shots used in UOR (see Figure 3) consistently emphasise the distinctive HDB blocks. As with the kampong housing, high-rise apartments continue notions of communal living in that “Living below, above and side by side other people requires tolerance of neighbours and a respect towards the environment of the housing estate for the good of all” (104). The provision of readily accessible public housing was part of the “covenant between the newly enfranchised electorate and the elected government” (Chua 47). Figure 3: Establishing shot from UOR In UOR, we see the constant interruption of the lives of the Tan family by their multi-ethnic neighbours. This occurs to such an extent as to be a part of the normal daily flow of life in Singaporean society. Chang argues that despite the normally interventionist activities of the state, it is the “self-enforcing norms” of behaviour that have worked in maintaining a “peaceable society in high-rise housing” (104). This communitarian attitude even extends to the large gated residence of PCK, home to an almost endless stream of relatives and friends. The gate itself seems to perform no restrictive function. But such a “peaceable society” can also be said to be a result of state planning which extends to the “racial majoritarianism” imposed on HDB units in the form of quotas determining “the actual number of households of each of the three major races [Chinese, Malay and Indian] … to be accommodated in a block of flats” (Chua 55). Issues of race are important in Singapore where “the inscription of media imagery bears the cultural discourse and materiality of the social milieu” (Wong 120) perhaps nowhere more graphically illustrated than in the segregation of TV channels along linguistic / cultural lines. These 3 programs all featured on MediaCorp TV’s predominantly English-language Channel 5 and are, in the words of Roland Barthes, “anchored” by dint of their use of English. Home Will Eat Itself The consumption of home-based sitcoms by audiences in their own living-rooms creates a somewhat self-parodying environment. As John Ellis once noted, it is difficult to escape from the notion that “TV is a profoundly domestic phenomenon” (113) in that it constantly attempts to “include the audiences own conception of themselves into the texture of its programmes” (115). In each of the three Singaporean programs living-rooms are designed to seat characters in front of a centrally located TV set – at most all the audience sees is the back of the TV, and generally only when the TV is incorporated into a storyline, as in the case of PCK in Figure 4 (note the TV set in the foreground). Figure 4: PCK Even in this episode of PCK when the lead characters stumble across a pornographic video starring one of the other lead characters, the viewer only hears the program. Perhaps the most realistic (and acerbic) view of how TV reorganises our lives – both spatially in the physical layout of our homes, and temporally in the way we construct our viewing habits (eating dinner or doing the housework while watching the screen) – is the British “black comedy”, The Royle Family. David Morley (443) notes that “TV and other media have adapted themselves to the circumstances of domestic consumption while the domestic arena itself has been simultaneously redefined to accommodate their requirements”. Morley refers to The Royle Family’s narrative that rests on the idea that “for many people, family life and watching TV have become indistinguishable to the extent that, in this fictional household, it is almost entirely conducted from the sitting positions of the viewers clustered around the set” (436). While TV is a central fixture in most sitcoms, its use is mostly as a peripheral thematic device with characters having their viewing interrupted by the arrival of another character, or by a major (within the realms of the plot) event. There is little to suggest that “television schedules have instigated a significant restructuring of family routines” as shown in Livingstone’s audience-based study of UK viewers (104). In the world of the sitcom, the temporalities of characters’ lives do not need to accurately reflect that of “real life” – or if they do, things quickly descend to the bleakness exemplified by the sedentary Royles. As Scannell notes, “broadcast output, like daily life, is largely uneventful, and both are punctuated (predictably and unpredictably) by eventful occasions” (4). To show sitcom characters in this static, passive environment would be anathema to the “real” viewer, who would quickly lose interest. This is not to suggest that sitcoms are totally benign though as with all genres they are “the outcome of social practices, received procedures that become objectified in the narratives of television, then modified in the interpretive act of viewing” (Taylor 14). In other words, they feature a contextualisation that is readily identifiable to members of an established society. However, within episodes themselves, it as though time stands still – character development is almost non-existent, or extremely slow at best and we see each episode has “flattened past and future into an eternal present in which parents love and respect one another, and their children forever” (Taylor 16). It takes some six seasons before the character of PCK becomes a father, although in previous seasons he acts as a mentor to his nephew, Aloysius. Contained in each episode, in true sitcom style, are particular “narrative lines” in which “one-liners and little comic situations [are] strung on a minimal plot line” containing a minor problem “the solution to which will take 22 minutes and pull us gently through the sequence of events toward a conclusion” (Budd et al. 111). It is important to note that the sitcom genre does not work in every culture, as each locale renders the sitcom with “different cultural meanings” (Nielsen 95). Writing of the failure of the Danish series Three Whores and a Pickpocket (with a premise like that, how could it fail?), Nielsen (112) attributes its failure to the mixing of “kitchen sink realism” with “moments of absurdity” and “psychological drama with expressionistic camera work”, moving it well beyond the strict mode of address required by the genre. In Australia, soap operas Home and Away and Neighbours have been infinitely more popular than our attempts at sitcoms – which had a brief heyday in the 1980s with Hey Dad..!, Kingswood Country and Mother and Son – although Kath and Kim (not studio-based) could almost be counted. Lichter et al. (11) state that “television entertainment can be ‘political’ even when it does not deal with the stuff of daily headlines or partisan controversy. Its latent politics lie in the unavoidable portrayal of individuals, groups, and institutions as a backdrop to any story that occupies the foreground”. They state that US television of the 1960s was dominated by the “idiot sitcom” and that “To appreciate these comedies you had to believe that social conventions were so ironclad they could not tolerate variations. The scripts assumed that any minute violation of social conventions would lead to a crisis that could be played for comic results” (15). Series like Happy Days “harked back to earlier days when problems were trivial and personal, isolated from the concerns of a larger world” (17). By the late 1980s, Roseanne and Married…With Children had “spawned an antifamily-sitcom format that used sarcasm, cynicism, and real life problems to create a type of in-your-face comedy heretofore unseen on prime time” (20). This is markedly different from the type of values presented in Singaporean sitcoms – where filial piety and an unrelenting faith in the family unit is sacrosanct. In this way, Singaporean sitcoms mirror the ideals of earlier US sitcoms which idealise the “egalitarian family in which parental wisdom lies in appeals to reason and fairness rather than demands for obedience” (Lichter et al. 406). Dahlgren notes that we are the products of “an ongoing process of the shaping and reshaping of identity, in response to the pluralised sets of social forces, cultural currents and personal contexts encountered by individuals” where we end up with “composite identities” (318). Such composite identities make the presentation (or re-presentation) of race problematic for producers of mainstream television. Wong argues that “Within the context of PAP hegemony, media presentation of racial differences are manufactured by invoking and resorting to traditional values, customs and practices serving as symbols and content” (118). All of this is bound within a classificatory system in which each citizen’s identity card is inscribed as Chinese, Malay, Indian or Other (often referred to as CMIO), and a broader social discourse in which “the Chinese are linked to familial values of filial piety and the practice of extended family, the Malays to Islam and rural agricultural activities, and the Indians to the caste system” (Wong 118). However, these sitcoms avoid directly addressing the issue of race, preferring to accentuate cultural differences instead. In UOR the tables are turned when a none-too-subtle dig at the crude nature of mainland Chinese (with gags about the state of public toilets), is soon turned into a more reverential view of Chinese culture and business acumen. Internal Visions of the Home This reverence for Chinese culture is also enacted visually. The loungeroom settings of these three sitcoms all provide examples of the fashioning of the nation through a “ubiquitous semi-visibility” (Noble 59). Not only are the central characters in each of these sitcoms constructed as ethnically Chinese, but the furnishings provide a visible nod to Chinese design in the lacquered screens, chairs and settees of LWL (see Figure 5.1), in the highly visible pair of black inlaid mother-of-pearl wall hangings of UOR (see Figure 5.2) and in the Chinese statuettes and wall-hangings found in the PCK home. Each of these items appears in the central view of the shows most used setting, the lounge/family room. There is often symmetry involved as well; the balanced pearl hangings of UOR are mirrored in a set of silk prints in LWL and the pair of ceramic Chinese lions in PCK. Figure 5.1: LWL Figure 5.2: UOR Thus, all three sitcoms feature design elements that reflect visible links to Chinese culture and sentiments, firmly locating the sitcoms “in Asia”, and providing a sense of the nation. The sets form an important role in constructing a realist environment, one in which “identification with realist narration involves a temporary merger of at least some of the viewer’s identity with the position offered by the text” (Budd et al. 110). These constant silent reminders of the Chinese-based hegemon – the cultural “majoritarianism” – anchors the sitcoms to a determined concept of the nation-state, and reinforces the “imaginative geographies of home” (Blunt and Dowling 247). The Foolish “Father” Figure in a Patriarchal Society But notions of a dominant Chinese culture are dealt with in a variety of ways in these sitcoms – not the least in a playful attitude toward patriarchal figures. In UOR, the Tan family “patriarch” is played by Moses Lim, in PCK, Gurmit Singh plays Phua and in LWL Samuel Chong plays Billy B. Ong (or, as Lydia mistakenly refers to him Billy Bong). Erica Sharrer makes the claim that class is a factor in presenting the father figure as buffoon, and that US sitcoms feature working class families in which “the father is made to look inept, silly, or incompetent have become more frequent” partly in response to changing societal structures where “women are shouldering increasing amounts of financial responsibility in the home” (27). Certainly in the three series looked at here, PCK (the tradesman) is presented as the most derided character in his role as head of the household. Moses Lim’s avuncular Tan Ah Teck is presented mostly as lovably foolish, even when reciting his long-winded moral tales at the conclusion of each episode, and Billy B. Ong, as a middle-class businessman, is presented more as a victim of circumstance than as a fool. Sharrer ponders whether “sharing the burden of bread-winning may be associated with fathers perceiving they are losing advantages to which they were traditionally entitled” (35). But is this really a case of males losing the upper hand? Hanke argues that men are commonly portrayed as the target of humour in sitcoms, but only when they “are represented as absurdly incongruous” to the point that “this discursive strategy recuperates patriarchal notions” (90). The other side of the coin is that while the “dominant discursive code of patriarchy might be undone” (but isn’t), “the sitcom’s strategy for containing women as ‘wives’ and ‘mothers’ is always contradictory and open to alternative readings” (Hanke 77). In Singapore’s case though, we often return to images of the women in the kitchen, folding the washing or agonising over the work/family dilemma, part of what Blunt and Dowling refer to as the “reproduction of patriarchal and heterosexist relations” often found in representations of “the ideal’ suburban home” (29). Eradicating Singlish One final aspect of these sitcoms is the use of language. PM Lee Hsien Loong once said that he had no interest in “micromanaging” the lives of Singaporeans (2004). Yet his two predecessors (PM Goh and PM Lee Senior) both reflected desires to do so by openly criticising the influence of Phua Chu Kang’s liberal use of colloquial phrases and phrasing. While the use of Singlish (or Singapore Colloquial English / SCE) in these sitcoms is partly a reflection of everyday life in Singapore, by taking steps to eradicate it through the Speak Good English movement, the government offers an intrusion into the private home-space of Singaporeans (Ho 17). Authorities fear that increased use of Singlish will damage the nation’s ability to communicate on a global basis, withdrawing to a locally circumscribed “pidgin English” (Rubdy 345). Indeed, the use of Singlish in UOR is deliberately underplayed in order to capitalise on overseas sales of the show (which aired, for example, on Australia’s SBS television) (Srilal). While many others have debated the Singlish issue, my concern is with its use in the home environment as representative of Singaporean lifestyles. As novelist Hwee Hwee Tan (2000) notes: Singlish is crude precisely because it’s rooted in Singapore’s unglamorous past. This is a nation built from the sweat of uncultured immigrants who arrived 100 years ago to bust their asses in the boisterous port. Our language grew out of the hardships of these ancestors. Singlish thus offers users the opportunity to “show solidarity, comradeship and intimacy (despite differences in background)” and against the state’s determined efforts to adopt the language of its colonizer (Ho 19-20). For this reason, PCK’s use of Singlish iterates a “common man” theme in much the same way as Paul Hogan’s “Ocker” image of previous decades was seen as a unifying feature of mainstream Australian values. That the fictional PCK character was eventually “forced” to take “English” lessons (a storyline rapidly written into the program after the direct criticisms from the various Prime Ministers), is a sign that the state has other ideas about the development of Singaporean society, and what is broadcast en masse into Singaporean homes. Conclusion So what do these home-based sitcoms tell us about Singaporean nationalism? Firstly, within the realms of a multiethnic society, mainstream representations reflect the hegemony present in the social and economic structures of Singapore. Chinese culture is dominant (albeit in an English-speaking environment) and Indian, Malay and Other cultures are secondary. Secondly, the home is a place of ontological security, and partial adornment with cultural ornaments signifying Chinese culture are ever-present as a reminder of the Asianness of the sitcom home, ostensibly reflecting the everyday home of the audience. The concept of home extends beyond the plywood-prop walls of the soundstage though. As Noble points out, “homes articulate domestic spaces to national experience” (54) through the banal nationalism exhibited in “the furniture of everyday life” (55). In a Singaporean context, Velayutham (extending the work of Morley) explores the comforting notion of Singapore as “home” to its citizens and concludes that the “experience of home and belonging amongst Singaporeans is largely framed in the materiality and social modernity of everyday life” (4). Through the use of sitcoms, the state is complicit in creating and recreating the family home as a site for national identities, adhering to dominant modes of culture and language. References Blunt, Alison, and Robyn Dowling. Home. London: Routledge, 2006. Budd, Mike, Steve Craig, and Clay Steinman. Consuming Environments: Television and Commercial Culture. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1999. 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Washington D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1994. Livingstone, Sonia. Young People and New Media: Childhood and the Changing Media Environment. London: Sage, 2002 Morley, David. “What’s ‘Home’ Got to Do with It? Contradictory Dynamics in the Domestication of Technology and the Dislocation of Domesticity.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (2003). Noble, Greg. “Comfortable and Relaxed: Furnishing the Home and Nation.” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 16.1 (2002). Rubdy, Rani. “Creative Destruction: Singapore’s Speak Good English Movement.” World Englishes 20.3 (2001). Scannell, Paddy. “For a Phenomenology of Radio and Television.” Journal of Communication 45.3 (1995). Scharrer, Erica. “From Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s-1990s.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 45.1 (2001). Srilal, Mohan. “Quick Quick: ‘Singlish’ Is Out in Re-education Campaign.” Asia Times Online (28 Aug. 1999). Tan, Hwee Hwee. “A War of Words over ‘Singlish’: Singapore’s Government Wants Its Citizens to Speak Good English, But They Would Rather Be ‘Talking Cock’.” Time International 160.3 (29 July 2002). Taylor, Ella. “From the Nelsons to the Huxtables: Genre and Family Imagery in American Network Television.” Qualitative Sociology 12.1 (1989). Velayutham, Selvaraj. “Affect, Materiality, and the Gift of Social Life in Singapore.” SOJOURN 19.1 (2004). Wong, Kokkeong. Media and Culture in Singapore: A Theory of Controlled Commodification. New Jersey: Hampton Press, 2001. Images Under One Roof: The Special Appearances. Singapore: Television Corporation of Singapore. VCD. 2000. Living with Lydia (Season 1, Volume 1). Singapore: MediaCorp Studios, Blue Max Enterprise. VCD. 2001. Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (Season 5, Episode 10). Kuala Lumpur: MediaCorp Studios, Speedy Video Distributors. VCD. 2003. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Pugsley, Peter. "At Home in Singaporean Sitcoms: Under One Roof, Living with Lydia and Phua Chu Kang." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/09-pugsley.php>. APA Style Pugsley, P. (Aug. 2007) "At Home in Singaporean Sitcoms: Under One Roof, Living with Lydia and Phua Chu Kang," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/09-pugsley.php>.

Introduction I am a transmigrant who has moved back and forth between the West and the Rest. I was born and raised in a Muslim family in a predominantly Muslim country, Bangladesh, but I spent several years of my childhood in Pakistan. After my marriage, I lived in the United States for a year and a half, the Middle East for 5 years, Australia for three years, back to the Middle East for another 5 years, then, finally, in Australia for the last 12 years. I speak Bengali (my mother tongue), Urdu (which I learnt in Pakistan), a bit of Arabic (learnt in the Middle East); but English has always been my medium of instruction. So where is home? Is it my place of origin, the Muslim umma, or my land of settlement? Or is it my ‘root’ or my ‘route’ (Blunt and Dowling)? Blunt and Dowling (199) observe that the lives of transmigrants are often interpreted in terms of their ‘roots’ and ‘routes’, which are two frameworks for thinking about home, homeland and diaspora. Whereas ‘roots’ might imply an original homeland from which people have scattered, and to which they might seek to return, ‘routes’ focuses on mobile, multiple and transcultural geographies of home. However, both ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ are attached to emotion and identity, and both invoke a sense of place, belonging or alienation that is intrinsically tied to a sense of self (Blunt and Dowling 196-219). In this paper, I equate home with my root (place of birth) and route (transnational homing) within the context of the ‘diaspora and belonging’. First I define the diaspora and possible criteria of belonging. Next I describe my transnational homing within the framework of diaspora and belonging. Finally, I consider how Australia can be a ‘home’ for me and other Muslim Australians. The Diaspora and Belonging Blunt and Dowling (199) define diaspora as “scattering of people over space and transnational connections between people and the places”. Cohen emphasised the ethno-cultural aspects of the diaspora setting; that is, how migrants identify and position themselves in other nations in terms of their (different) ethnic and cultural orientation. Hall argues that the diasporic subjects form a cultural identity through transformation and difference. Speaking of the Hindu diaspora in the UK and Caribbean, Vertovec (21-23) contends that the migrants’ contact with their original ‘home’ or diaspora depends on four factors: migration processes and factors of settlement, cultural composition, structural and political power, and community development. With regard to the first factor, migration processes and factors of settlement, Vertovec explains that if the migrants are political or economic refugees, or on a temporary visa, they are likely to live in a ‘myth of return’. In the cultural composition context, Vertovec argues that religion, language, region of origin, caste, and degree of cultural homogenisation are factors in which migrants are bound to their homeland. Concerning the social structure and political power issue, Vertovec suggests that the extent and nature of racial and ethnic pluralism or social stigma, class composition, degree of institutionalised racism, involvement in party politics (or active citizenship) determine migrants’ connection to their new or old home. Finally, community development, including membership in organisations (political, union, religious, cultural, leisure), leadership qualities, and ethnic convergence or conflict (trends towards intra-communal or inter-ethnic/inter-religious co-operation) would also affect the migrants’ sense of belonging. Using these scholarly ideas as triggers, I will examine my home and belonging over the last few decades. My Home In an initial stage of my transmigrant history, my home was my root (place of birth, Dhaka, Bangladesh). Subsequently, my routes (settlement in different countries) reshaped my homes. In all respects, the ethno-cultural factors have played a big part in my definition of ‘home’. But on some occasions my ethnic identification has been overridden by my religious identification and vice versa. By ethnic identity, I mean my language (mother tongue) and my connection to my people (Bangladeshi). By my religious identity, I mean my Muslim religion, and my spiritual connection to the umma, a Muslim nation transcending all boundaries. Umma refers to the Muslim identity and unity within a larger Muslim group across national boundaries. The only thing the members of the umma have in common is their Islamic belief (Spencer and Wollman 169-170). In my childhood my father, a banker, was relocated to Karachi, Pakistan (then West Pakistan). Although I lived in Pakistan for much of my childhood, I have never considered it to be my home, even though it is predominantly a Muslim country. In this case, my home was my root (Bangladesh) where my grandparents and extended family lived. Every year I used to visit my grandparents who resided in a small town in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Thus my connection with my home was sustained through my extended family, ethnic traditions, language (Bengali/Bangla), and the occasional visits to the landscape of Bangladesh. Smith (9-11) notes that people build their connection or identity to their homeland through their historic land, common historical memories, myths, symbols and traditions. Though Pakistan and Bangladesh had common histories, their traditions of language, dress and ethnic culture were very different. For example, the celebration of the Bengali New Year (Pohela Baishakh), folk dance, folk music and folk tales, drama, poetry, lyrics of poets Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindra Sangeet) and Nazrul Islam (Nazrul Geeti) are distinct in the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. Special musical instruments such as the banshi (a bamboo flute), dhol (drums), ektara (a single-stringed instrument) and dotara (a four-stringed instrument) are unique to Bangladeshi culture. The Bangladeshi cuisine (rice and freshwater fish) is also different from Pakistan where people mainly eat flat round bread (roti) and meat (gosh). However, my bonding factor to Bangladesh was my relatives, particularly my grandparents as they made me feel one of ‘us’. Their affection for me was irreplaceable. The train journey from Dhaka (capital city) to their town, Noakhali, was captivating. The hustle and bustle at the train station and the lush green paddy fields along the train journey reminded me that this was my ‘home’. Though I spoke the official language (Urdu) in Pakistan and had a few Pakistani friends in Karachi, they could never replace my feelings for my friends, extended relatives and cousins who lived in Bangladesh. I could not relate to the landscape or dry weather of Pakistan. More importantly, some Pakistani women (our neighbours) were critical of my mother’s traditional dress (saree), and described it as revealing because it showed a bit of her back. They took pride in their traditional dress (shalwar, kameez, dopatta), which they considered to be more covered and ‘Islamic’. So, because of our traditional dress (saree) and perhaps other differences, we were regarded as the ‘Other’. In 1970 my father was relocated back to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I was glad to go home. It should be noted that both Pakistan and Bangladesh were separated from India in 1947 – first as one nation; then, in 1971, Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. The conflict between Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and Pakistan (then West Pakistan) originated for economic and political reasons. At this time I was a high school student and witnessed acts of genocide committed by the Pakistani regime against the Bangladeshis (March-December 1971). My memories of these acts are vivid and still very painful. After my marriage, I moved from Bangladesh to the United States. In this instance, my new route (Austin, Texas, USA), as it happened, did not become my home. Here the ethno-cultural and Islamic cultural factors took precedence. I spoke the English language, made some American friends, and studied history at the University of Texas. I appreciated the warm friendship extended to me in the US, but experienced a degree of culture shock. I did not appreciate the pub life, alcohol consumption, and what I perceived to be the lack of family bonds (children moving out at the age of 18, families only meeting occasionally on birthdays and Christmas). Furthermore, I could not relate to de facto relationships and acceptance of sex before marriage. However, to me ‘home’ meant a family orientation and living in close contact with family. Besides the cultural divide, my husband and I were living in the US on student visas and, as Vertovec (21-23) noted, temporary visa status can deter people from their sense of belonging to the host country. In retrospect I can see that we lived in the ‘myth of return’. However, our next move for a better life was not to our root (Bangladesh), but another route to the Muslim world of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. My husband moved to Dhahran not because it was a Muslim world but because it gave him better economic opportunities. However, I thought this new destination would become my home – the home that was coined by Anderson as the imagined nation, or my Muslim umma. Anderson argues that the imagined communities are “to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6; Wood 61). Hall (122) asserts: identity is actually formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth. There is always something ‘imaginary’ or fantasized about its unity. It always remains incomplete, is always ‘in process’, always ‘being formed’. As discussed above, when I had returned home to Bangladesh from Pakistan – both Muslim countries – my primary connection to my home country was my ethnic identity, language and traditions. My ethnic identity overshadowed the religious identity. But when I moved to Saudi Arabia, where my ethnic identity differed from that of the mainstream Arabs and Bedouin/nomadic Arabs, my connection to this new land was through my Islamic cultural and religious identity. Admittedly, this connection to the umma was more psychological than physical, but I was now in close proximity to Mecca, and to my home of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mecca is an important city in Saudi Arabia for Muslims because it is the holy city of Islam, the home to the Ka’aba (the religious centre of Islam), and the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad [Peace Be Upon Him]. It is also the destination of the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Therefore, Mecca is home to significant events in Islamic history, as well as being an important present day centre for the Islamic faith. We lived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for 5 years. Though it was a 2.5 hours flight away, I treasured Mecca’s proximity and regarded Dhahran as my second and spiritual home. Saudi Arabia had a restricted lifestyle for women, but I liked it because it was a Muslim country that gave me the opportunity to perform umrah Hajj (pilgrimage). However, Saudi Arabia did not allow citizenship to expatriates. Saudi Arabia’s government was keen to protect the status quo and did not want to compromise its cultural values or standard of living by allowing foreigners to become a permanent part of society. In exceptional circumstances only, the King granted citizenship to a foreigner for outstanding service to the state over a number of years. Children of foreigners born in Saudi Arabia did not have rights of local citizenship; they automatically assumed the nationality of their parents. If it was available, Saudi citizenship would assure expatriates a secure and permanent living in Saudi Arabia; as it was, there was a fear among the non-Saudis that they would have to leave the country once their job contract expired. Under the circumstances, though my spiritual connection to Mecca was strong, my husband was convinced that Saudi Arabia did not provide any job security. So, in 1987 when Australia offered migration to highly skilled people, my husband decided to migrate to Australia for a better and more secure economic life. I agreed to his decision, but quite reluctantly because we were again moving to a non-Muslim part of the world, which would be culturally different and far away from my original homeland (Bangladesh). In Australia, we lived first in Brisbane, then Adelaide, and after three years we took our Australian citizenship. At that stage I loved the Barossa Valley and Victor Harbour in South Australia, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but did not feel at home in Australia. We bought a house in Adelaide and I was a full time home-maker but was always apprehensive that my children (two boys) would lose their culture in this non-Muslim world. In 1990 we once again moved back to the Muslim world, this time to Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. My connection to this route was again spiritual. I valued the fact that we would live in a Muslim country and our children would be brought up in a Muslim environment. But my husband’s move was purely financial as he got a lucrative job offer in Muscat. We had another son in Oman. We enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle provided by my husband’s workplace and the service provided by the housemaid. I loved the beaches and freedom to drive my car, and I appreciated the friendly Omani people. I also enjoyed our frequent trips (4 hours flight) to my root, Dhaka, Bangladesh. So our children were raised within our ethnic and Islamic culture, remained close to my root (family in Dhaka), though they attended a British school in Muscat. But by the time I started considering Oman to be my second home, we had to leave once again for a place that could provide us with a more secure future. Oman was like Saudi Arabia; it employed expatriates only on a contract basis, and did not give them citizenship (not even fellow Muslims). So after 5 years it was time to move back to Australia. It was with great reluctance that I moved with my husband to Brisbane in 1995 because once again we were to face a different cultural context. As mentioned earlier, we lived in Brisbane in the late 1980s; I liked the weather, the landscape, but did not consider it home for cultural reasons. Our boys started attending expensive private schools and we bought a house in a prestigious Western suburb in Brisbane. Soon after arriving I started my tertiary education at the University of Queensland, and finished an MA in Historical Studies in Indian History in 1998. Still Australia was not my home. I kept thinking that we would return to my previous routes or the ‘imagined’ homeland somewhere in the Middle East, in close proximity to my root (Bangladesh), where we could remain economically secure in a Muslim country. But gradually I began to feel that Australia was becoming my ‘home’. I had gradually become involved in professional and community activities (with university colleagues, the Bangladeshi community and Muslim women’s organisations), and in retrospect I could see that this was an early stage of my ‘self-actualisation’ (Maslow). Through my involvement with diverse people, I felt emotionally connected with the concerns, hopes and dreams of my Muslim-Australian friends. Subsequently, I also felt connected with my mainstream Australian friends whose emotions and fears (9/11 incident, Bali bombing and 7/7 tragedy) were similar to mine. In late 1998 I started my PhD studies on the immigration history of Australia, with a particular focus on the historical settlement of Muslims in Australia. This entailed retrieving archival files and interviewing people, mostly Muslims and some mainstream Australians, and enquiring into relevant migration issues. I also became more active in community issues, and was not constrained by my circumstances. By circumstances, I mean that even though I belonged to a patriarchally structured Muslim family, where my husband was the main breadwinner, main decision-maker, my independence and research activities (entailing frequent interstate trips for data collection, and public speaking) were not frowned upon or forbidden (Khan 14-15); fortunately, my husband appreciated my passion for research and gave me his trust and support. This, along with the Muslim community’s support (interviews), and the wider community’s recognition (for example, the publication of my letters in Australian newspapers, interviews on radio and television) enabled me to develop my self-esteem and built up my bicultural identity as a Muslim in a predominantly Christian country and as a Bangladeshi-Australian. In 2005, for the sake of a better job opportunity, my husband moved to the UK, but this time I asserted that I would not move again. I felt that here in Australia (now in Perth) I had a job, an identity and a home. This time my husband was able to secure a good job back in Australia and was only away for a year. I no longer dream of finding a home in the Middle East. Through my bicultural identity here in Australia I feel connected to the wider community and to the Muslim umma. However, my attachment to the umma has become ambivalent. I feel proud of my Australian-Muslim identity but I am concerned about the jihadi ideology of militant Muslims. By jihadi ideology, I mean the extremist ideology of the al-Qaeda terrorist group (Farrar 2007). The Muslim umma now incorporates both moderate and radical Muslims. The radical Muslims (though only a tiny minority of 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide) pose a threat to their moderate counterparts as well as to non-Muslims. In the UK, some second- and third-generation Muslims identify themselves with the umma rather than their parents’ homelands or their country of birth (Husain). It should not be a matter of concern if these young Muslims adopt a ‘pure’ Muslim identity, providing at the same time they are loyal to their country of residence. But when they resort to terrorism with their ‘pure’ Muslim identity (e.g., the 7/7 London bombers) they defame my religion Islam, and undermine my spiritual connection to the umma. As a 1st generation immigrant, the defining criteria of my ‘homeliness’ in Australia are my ethno-cultural and religious identity (which includes my family), my active citizenship, and my community development/contribution through my research work – all of which allow me a sense of efficacy in my life. My ethnic and religious identities generally co-exist equally, but when I see some Muslims kill my fellow Australians (such as the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005) my Australian identity takes precedence. I feel for the victims and condemn the perpetrators. On the other hand, when I see politics play a role over the human rights issues (e.g., the Tampa incident), my religious identity begs me to comment on it (see Kabir, Muslims in Australia 295-305). Problematising ‘Home’ for Muslim Australians In the European context, Grillo (863) and Werbner (904), and in the Australian context, Kabir (Muslims in Australia) and Poynting and Mason, have identified the diversity within Islam (national, ethnic, religious etc). Werbner (904) notes that in spite of the “wishful talk of the emergence of a ‘British Islam’, even today there are Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Arab mosques, as well as Turkish and Shia’a mosques”; thus British Muslims retain their separate identities. Similarly, in Australia, the existence of separate mosques for the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Arab and Shia’a peoples indicates that Australian Muslims have also kept their ethnic identities discrete (Saeed 64-77). However, in times of crisis, such as the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989, and the 1990-1991 Gulf crises, both British and Australian Muslims were quick to unite and express their Islamic identity by way of resistance (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 160-162; Poynting and Mason 68-70). In both British and Australian contexts, I argue that a peaceful rally or resistance is indicative of active citizenship of Muslims as it reveals their sense of belonging (also Werbner 905). So when a transmigrant Muslim wants to make a peaceful demonstration, the Western world should be encouraged, not threatened – as long as the transmigrant’s allegiances lie also with the host country. In the European context, Grillo (868) writes: when I asked Mehmet if he was planning to stay in Germany he answered without hesitation: ‘Yes, of course’. And then, after a little break, he added ‘as long as we can live here as Muslims’. In this context, I support Mehmet’s desire to live as a Muslim in a non-Muslim world as long as this is peaceful. Paradoxically, living a Muslim life through ijtihad can be either socially progressive or destructive. The Canadian Muslim feminist Irshad Manji relies on ijtihad, but so does Osama bin Laden! Manji emphasises that ijtihad can be, on the one hand, the adaptation of Islam using independent reasoning, hybridity and the contesting of ‘traditional’ family values (c.f. Doogue and Kirkwood 275-276, 314); and, on the other, ijtihad can take the form of conservative, patriarchal and militant Islamic values. The al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden espouses the jihadi ideology of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian who early in his career might have been described as a Muslim modernist who believed that Islam and Western secular ideals could be reconciled. But he discarded that idea after going to the US in 1948-50; there he was treated as ‘different’ and that treatment turned him against the West. He came back to Egypt and embraced a much more rigid and militaristic form of Islam (Esposito 136). Other scholars, such as Cesari, have identified a third orientation – a ‘secularised Islam’, which stresses general beliefs in the values of Islam and an Islamic identity, without too much concern for practices. Grillo (871) observed Islam in the West emphasised diversity. He stressed that, “some [Muslims were] more quietest, some more secular, some more clamorous, some more negotiatory”, while some were exclusively characterised by Islamic identity, such as wearing the burqa (elaborate veils), hijabs (headscarves), beards by men and total abstinence from drinking alcohol. So Mehmet, cited above, could be living a Muslim life within the spectrum of these possibilities, ranging from an integrating mode to a strict, militant Muslim manner. In the UK context, Zubaida (96) contends that marginalised, culturally-impoverished youth are the people for whom radical, militant Islamism may have an appeal, though it must be noted that the 7/7 bombers belonged to affluent families (O’Sullivan 14; Husain). In Australia, Muslim Australians are facing three challenges. First, the Muslim unemployment rate: it was three times higher than the national total in 1996 and 2001 (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 266-278; Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 63). Second, some spiritual leaders have used extreme rhetoric to appeal to marginalised youth; in January 2007, the Australian-born imam of Lebanese background, Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, was alleged to have employed a DVD format to urge children to kill the enemies of Islam and to have praised martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad (Chulov 2). Third, the proposed citizenship test has the potential to make new migrants’ – particularly Muslims’ – settlement in Australia stressful (Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 62-79); in May 2007, fuelled by perceptions that some migrants – especially Muslims – were not integrating quickly enough, the Howard government introduced a citizenship test bill that proposes to test applicants on their English language skills and knowledge of Australian history and ‘values’. I contend that being able to demonstrate knowledge of history and having English language skills is no guarantee that a migrant will be a good citizen. Through my transmigrant history, I have learnt that developing a bond with a new place takes time, acceptance and a gradual change of identity, which are less likely to happen when facing assimilationist constraints. I spoke English and studied history in the United States, but I did not consider it my home. I did not speak the Arabic language, and did not study Middle Eastern history while I was in the Middle East, but I felt connected to it for cultural and religious reasons. Through my knowledge of history and English language proficiency I did not make Australia my home when I first migrated to Australia. Australia became my home when I started interacting with other Australians, which was made possible by having the time at my disposal and by fortunate circumstances, which included a fairly high level of efficacy and affluence. If I had been rejected because of my lack of knowledge of ‘Australian values’, or had encountered discrimination in the job market, I would have been much less willing to embrace my host country and call it home. I believe a stringent citizenship test is more likely to alienate would-be citizens than to induce their adoption of values and loyalty to their new home. Conclusion Blunt (5) observes that current studies of home often investigate mobile geographies of dwelling and how it shapes one’s identity and belonging. Such geographies of home negotiate from the domestic to the global context, thus mobilising the home beyond a fixed, bounded and confining location. Similarly, in this paper I have discussed how my mobile geography, from the domestic (root) to global (route), has shaped my identity. Though I received a degree of culture shock in the United States, loved the Middle East, and was at first quite resistant to the idea of making Australia my second home, the confidence I acquired in residing in these ‘several homes’ were cumulative and eventually enabled me to regard Australia as my ‘home’. I loved the Middle East, but I did not pursue an active involvement with the Arab community because I was a busy mother. Also I lacked the communication skill (fluency in Arabic) with the local residents who lived outside the expatriates’ campus. I am no longer a cultural freak. I am no longer the same Bangladeshi woman who saw her ethnic and Islamic culture as superior to all other cultures. I have learnt to appreciate Australian values, such as tolerance, ‘a fair go’ and multiculturalism (see Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 62-79). My bicultural identity is my strength. With my ethnic and religious identity, I can relate to the concerns of the Muslim community and other Australian ethnic and religious minorities. And with my Australian identity I have developed ‘a voice’ to pursue active citizenship. Thus my biculturalism has enabled me to retain and merge my former home with my present and permanent home of Australia. References Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, New York: Verso, 1983. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Census of Housing and Population, 1996 and 2001. Blunt, Alison. Domicile and Diaspora: Anglo-Indian Women and the Spatial Politics of Home. 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Citation reference for this article MLA Style Kabir, Nahid. "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>. APA Style Kabir, N. (Aug. 2007) "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>.