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 …
they might well be the modern-day buccaneers. To further their research, agricultural and pharmaceutical companies often tap local communities for traditional knowledge relating to the use of biological resour ces. The conglomerates lose no time in appropriating this painstakingly assimilated information. And make a fast buck by developing products based …
Amid starvation deaths, overflowing granaries and a persistent Supreme Court chasing the government to explain these paradoxes, the recent Union cabinet clearance to the Rs 10,000-crore food for work programme should on face value be good news. But given the fact that the government wants to use the scheme to …
Newspapers come replete with news of starvation deaths while stocks go waste in government storage houses. Food scarcity in India is a more a human-made problem that one brought upon by nature's vagaries. Public distribution system, food and grain prices, gender-related problems and sheer poverty combine to have a debilitating …
tens of millions of children could face starvation in 20 years time if the governments across the world do not focus on irrigation, education and agricultural research for poor countries, according to a new analysis. The analysis was performed by the world's most complex computer model of the global food …
How does vitamin A rice help solve poverty and malnutrition in developing countries? People whose staple diet is rice usually suffer from vitamin deficiencies. In Bangladesh, for instance, 75 per cent of the calories come from rice. Similarly, in countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, rice accounts for 70 per …
The Swiss take pride in their lush landscapes, and Bolly wood buffs know why. The breathtaking alpine pastures of this small mountain country have replaced strife-torn Sri nagar and polluted and overpopulated Ooty as a backdrop for frolicking fantasies as our buxom actresses and burly actors join Heidi in yodeling …
A welcome stepM S Swaminathan i am happy that at last the Lok Sabha has passed the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Bill. This is a major step in incorporating the ethics and equity provisions of the convention on biological diversity in a sui generis system of varietal …
The Supreme Court has directed six drought-prone states to reopen closed public distribution shops. The court's directive was given in response to a lawsuit filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which cited incidents of starvation deaths despite the storehouses of Food Corporation of India (FCI) overflowing with …
climate change could could hit food production in the some of the world’s poorest countries and widen the gulf between the industrialised countries and the rest. India could be one of the worst hit. These findings were presented by Mahendra Shah, researcher on land use at the Austria
A UN commission has agreed on setting up, for the first time, global principles for assessing the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a division of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has agreed that the safety of food derived …
Order of the Supreme Court of India in the People's Union for Civil Liberties Vs Union of India & Ors dated 23/07/2001 regarding the issue of food security in India. In their Order the SC judges noted that "In our opinion, what is of utmost importance is to see that …
The cartoons shoved into the faces of schoolchildren in the United Kingdom by the members of a ngo screamed that they would fall sick if they drank milk. Milk would disfigure their faces with horrible acne or cause globules of mucus to flow out of their mouths every time they …
The message of community based water harvesting is spreading - not just in India but also globally. The Food and Agriculture Organisation ( fao ) now sees "increasing water harvesting and water conservation" as a key challenge for ensuring food security. For a large number of people, especially those who …
G lobal trade in coarse grains in 1995 was to the magnitude of about 132 metric tonnes (mt) and is projected to rise to 175 mt by 2005. About 80-85 per cent of this export originates from industria lised countries, where coarse grains are cultivated for animal feed. In Japan, …
That they are called coarse grains summarises their present status in Indian society. Go anywhere in the country, and you will see a marked inferiority accorded to
Down To Earth and the Centre for Science and Environment announce that the winner of the 2001 Green Scientist Award is V P Sharma , former head of the Malaria Research Centre. Instituted to recognise and honour commendable scientific efforts in the crucial but ignored area of environmental science, the …
