The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
smarting from last year's severe drought, the Union ministry of agriculture has asked state governments to encourage crop diversification. The pre-emptive measure seeks to factor in the effect of monsoon failure in the present kharif season. But in the absence of facilities for storage, preservation and processing of alternative crops, …
the seeds of a novel programme to reduce the rice-wheat predominance in Punjab's cropping pattern have been planted. The state recently launched a multi-crop, multi-year contract farming programme. It seeks to convince Punjab's farmers - who currently follow the rice-wheat cropping pattern - to switch over to alternative crops. The …
SUSTAINABLE development is a growing concern for many grassroots organisations, such as the Mukti Sangharsh Movement (MSM) in Sangli district in western Maharashtra. Over the last decade, MSM has involved peasants and labourers in developing scientific alternatives as part of its anti-drought movement, and more recently, in the Bali Raja …
RICE AS grown in India is a water-guzzler, because farmers use on an average 15,000 litres to produce one kg of paddy, though water technologists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi say no more than 600 litres is needed if proper water management techniques are followed. Given …
