THE government should offer assured income to farmers and shield them from erratic weather conditions. These are a few of the demands of farmers’ groups from the Union Budget 2011-12, which will be tabled in February-end. To address the declining growth in agriculture, the government should allocate more funds for …
The World Economic Forum—the gathering of power glitterati each year in Davos—has assessed the top risks the world faces in 2011. According to this analysis, climate change is the highest-ranking risk the world will face in the coming years, when its likelihood and impact are combined. What’s even more important …
The Indian economy this year (2010-11) has been characterized by robust economic growth and steady fiscal consolidation. Inflation continues to be high even though it has come down markedly from where it was at the start of the fiscal year. There are structural challenges that face, concerning economic governance, efficiency …
EXTREME weather conditions over the past few weeks have destroyed crops in several states, triggering farmers’ suicides. In all, over 300 farmers reportedly killed themselves in Andhra Pradesh (275), Odisha (36) and Madhya Pradesh (7), the worst hit states. Media reports said some of the deaths were caused by heart …
Some hundred people, men and women, were gathered on the hill. Many more, I could see, were trudging up. Their faces were resolute. I asked why they were opposing the cement plant. Their answer was simple: “We cannot eat cement.” “But the plant will bring you employment and prosperity,” I …
The Supreme Court, on February 8, ordered the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to reconstitute independent scientific panels looking into the harmful effects of chemicals and toxins in carbonated beverages and other food items. The court was hearing a petition on the harmful effects of chemical additives …
This is an environmental assessment study for the proposed National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP) to be implemented in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 Indian states with an aim to increase and sustain income of the poor, especially women.
The new UNEP report demonstrates that a transition to a green economy is possible by investing 2% of global GDP per year (currently about US 1.3 trillion) between now and 2050 in a green transformation of key sectors, including agriculture, buildings, energy, fisheries, forests, manufacturing, tourism, transport, water & waste …
It came to them as a small business proposal. About 10,000 farmers in the semi-arid Shekhawati region on the edge of Thar desert turned it into a fortune spinner and have become major organic farmers in Rajasthan. It was 1994, recalled Om Prakash Sharma, farmer in Korela village near Nawalgarh …
THREE months after the country’s top science academies released their controversial report backing genetically modified (GM) crops and hastily withdrew it after it was panned by the scientific community, they are back with an updated report—and the verdict is that it is worse than the original. The Inter-Academy Report on …
THE Rajasthan government distributed hybrid maize seeds not suitable for agroclimatic conditions of the state to over 750,000 farmers. In doing so, it overlooked the recommendations of the Union ministry for agriculture and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). The seeds had failed to give desired yields during trials …
IT IS back to square one for the farmers of Jalaun district in Uttar Pradesh. Reeling under persistent drought from 2003-08, they were driven to mentha (mint) cultivation that promised good returns. Instead, it increased debts. Cultivation of this water-intensive crop is fast shrinking due to depletion of groundwater and …
The shiny, greenish-grey beans look no worse off for having passed through the Asian palm civet’s digestive system. “I can’t tell the difference between this coffee and my normal parchment coffee, but connoisseurs say it has a subtle nuttiness,” said septuagenarian coffee planter T S Ganesh, the only producer of …
NARAYANA Vokalliga from Belur village in Kasaragod breathed his last on November 20 just as his son was explaining how his father had suffered from exposure to endosulfan for 30 years. The former employee of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala used to spray the toxic pesticide manually in the corporation’s …
KERALA has challenged the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee’s (GEAC) decision to allow open field trials of genetically modified (GM) rubber in the state. GEAC, the country’s apex body that approves release of GM crops, had given a go-ahead to the Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) to carry out the …
It is called the mango city. But of late, Muthalamada panchayat in Kerala’s Palakkad district has gained notoriety for excessive use of endosulfan in its mango orchards. Its effect is showing on people living there. When seven-year-old Sharanya was born, her parents Rukmini and Chandran were relieved the baby was …
Two months ago, residents of Thervoy Kandigai in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu were set to take forward the fight to save their land. Despite their opposition, the environment ministry in August this year had given clearance to an industrial park near the village. The residents decided to challenge the …
Something is stirring in paddy fields across India. New seeds, new crop management techniques and newly minted food security policies are about to hit the countryside. Not all of the changes that are being forged in Krishi Bhawan, headquarters of the Union agriculture ministry, in the top-flight research institutions across …
Jai Sri is a common greeting in the Koraput countryside these days. A Paraja tribal woman working in her fields, a passing motorcyclist driving through the rutted lanes, a teacher heading for his school, they all greet each other and visitors with a Jai Sri. It has nothing to do …
IT’S yellow, sweet, large, uniformly sized and firmly textured. For almost everyone the Cavendish variety is the banana. But it was not so until the 1950s when a fungus knocked out its predecessor, Gros Michel, the sweetest variety known so far. The Cavendish, once a littleknown Vietnamese variety, successfully resisted …
