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 …
it might not be a million dollar question, but is worth us $7,600. A newspaper is offering the amount to anyone who can explain why, over the past almost 30 years, Britain's rural sparrow population has declined by about 60 per cent. For many experts, clues to this puzzle lie …
A revolution in farming is in the offing across Europe, courtesy the new Water Framework Directive . The order must become a national law across the 15-nation European Union (eu) bloc by the end of 2003. It sets tough new limits on the level of pollutants permitted in rivers and …
pedro sanchez, head of Nairobi-based International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (icraf), was recently awarded the World Food Prize for his research into low-technology methods for improving soil fertility. His research reveals that by using leguminous trees rather than plants, soil fertility can be improved cost-effectively. Crop rotation using legumes …
The European Union (eu) has proposed to amend the 40-year-old Common Agricultural Policy (cap). Under the proposal, subsidies will be granted to farmers on the basis of their observing public health, safety and environmental norms. This is in contrast to the existing system wherein farmers receive sops on the basis …
There is a quiet revolution sweeping across the forests of Mexico. The movement seeks to save the endangered Monarch butterfly. Even as millions of these butterflies spend their winters in Mexico yet the government has failed to protect their forest habitat from illegal logging. The 200,000-odd largely impoverished people, who …
The village Pokhlabeda in Patamda block near Jamshedpur is unlike most other villages in the tribal population-dominated districts of Singhbhum today. Fifteen years back, farmers here considered themselves fortunate if they harvested one healthy crop a year. Today, most farmers manage about three crops a year, and some households even …
Brazil is set to challenge the controversial us farm subsidy programme. It is likely to file a case with the World Trade Organisation (wto) regarding the farm bill that would deprive the Brazilian soyabean and cotton farmers of more than us $1.5 billion a year in exports while boosting annual …
What is the general understanding of the term ‘pesticides’? In the Asian and South Asian countries, people often term pesticides as ‘medicines’. I have heard this in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India. This is a wrong notion that the pesticide manu facturers have succeeded in implanting in the minds …
KISHAN PAL collects wasps for a living. He feeds them beefliver and chicken to ensure they retain their sting. Farmers make a beeline at Pal's house to buy these tiny cannibals. They are more than willing to pay Rs 500 for each carton of wasps. When let loose on fieldsthese …
the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (apfdc) has selected nine herbs and plants for large-scale cultivation.The apfdc is carrying out experimental farming on a few of the chosen herbs like safed musli. Says apfdc managing director S K Das, "Since growing of these herbs requires intense crop management and investment, …
What is organic farming? In organic farming natural materials are used. It lays emphasis on soil fertility and plant health. The idea is, ‘the heal thier the soil (which includes the health of all the soil organisms such as worms and the micro organisms), the healthier the plant’. In this …
American rivers, an environmental protection group based in Washington, DC, USA, has warned that farmers along the Minnesota river are severely damaging the river by their crop selection. Cultivation of crops such as corn and soya bean in an area prone to flooding is not only leading to crop losses …
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ABANI KUMAR BHAGABATI, GUWAHATIthe Karbi Anglong district in Assam, the homeland of the Karbi tribe, is on the brink of an economic and ecological crisis. A high rate of population growth and overuse of land for shifting cultivation known as jhumming have led to alternative means of increasing productivity. While …
BORN in a small farming village on the island of Shikoku, Japan, Masanobu Fukuoka was trained as an inspector. Soon, he began questioning the accomplishments of modern civilisation. In 1945, after being discharged from the Imperial Army, he returned to the village lyo and chose to farm. Natural farming is …
An agricultural revolution is in the offing in the Sabel, the driest zone of the West African semi-arid tropics. The change in agricultural systems is being spearheaded by the Sah Centre set up to ched downward trend to po, by the International C Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, one …
IN THE traditional farming system, locally available resources that are cheap and sustainable have been used after repeated experiments with local knowledge for subsistence. While modern agricultural research made a big stride in many countries, most of the traditional systems of farm practices have been neglected. Be it crop or …
