CARDAMOM Planters Marketing Co-operative Society in Kerala has appealed to the high court to suspend the ban on the use of extremely toxic and highly toxic pesticides. They say the ban will affect the cardamom crop this season. To promote organic farming in Kerala, the state agriculture department had ordered …
It’s afternoon and wisps of clouds have already enveloped the Sora Muni shrine that keeps watch over Sri Lanka’s Horton Plains massif. Here, Tamil workers of the Thotulagalla tea estate in Haputale offer a sacrificial goat to the deity following the annual pruning of tea bushes. It is ironic to …
Tea grown on the steep slopes of Darjeeling hills, connoisseurs swear, is unlike anywhere else in the world. Epicures use a plethora of adjectives to describe the “champagne of teas”: brisk, flowery, round, mellow and sparkling. Brewed properly, the Darjeeling tea leaves yield a thin-bodied, light-coloured liquor with a floral …
If numbers were enough, the case of Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al versus Monsanto would already be won. On March 29, family farmers—in America, this essentially means small farmers; in India it would be redundancy— along with seed dealers and international organic farming organisations, filed an unusual …
AT A time when the world is pushing for organic farming, the US is advocating the no-till method. Tilling, a process that turns soil inside out, helps develop a good seed bed while destroying weeds, insects and microbes. Organic farming requires land to be tilled to control weeds and pests …
A mango that resembles an apple or smells like grapefruit. A mango that shrinks, but does not rot. But for the conservation initiative of a farmer in Karnataka’s Mandya district, such fruits would have been part of folklore. “These trees bear Tipu Sultan’s mangoes,” says Syed Ghani Khan of Kirgaval …
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 …
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 …
The new nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy policy provides implicit incentives to farmers to test soil samples regularly and get crop-wise recommended doses of nutrients, and offers prospective benefits from the agro-environmental management point of view. A study of six villages in the lower Bhavani Basin in Tamil Nadu reveals that despite …
He is a former MLA, a khandani landlord and owns more than 121 hectare (ha) apart from many local businesses. Known as the ‘sarkar’ of Sonkachch tehsil of the dry Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajendhra Singh Baghel met natural farming guru Subhash Palekar about 10 years ago. Today, …
A survey was made on certified organic farms in the country to ascertain the real benefits and feasibility of organic farming in terms of the production potential, economics and soil health in comparison to the conventional farms. The study revealed that organic farming, in spite of the reduction in crop …
The Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) has mounted efforts to increase the production of organic tea so that the majority of the champagne of teas is organically produced by 2010. Industry sources say that at present about 37 per cent of the total crop grown on the slopes of the eastern …
Affordable: Ms. Rajareega at her farm in SivaGanga district, Tamil Nadu seen manufacturing the botanical pesticides. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that in the past 4-5 decades there has been an excessive dumping of chemical toxins on the soil. As a result the soil has become …
Greenpeace Seeks Data On Field Trials; Firm Says It's Trade Secret. It's a classic case of commercial interest vs public interest which could set an important precedent. Genetically modified brinjal
Popular demand: Mr. George Thomas of Kozhikode seen harvesting the mushrooms. The problems are increasing: labour shortage, spiralling costs of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, difficulty in marketing, and absence of proper guidelines in price fixation for harvested produce. So, farmers are desperate to ensure minimum and sustained income from crops …
The government has attached high priority to the plantation of organic coffee, minister of state for commerce Jayaram Ramesh said in Parliament yesterday. Regions in the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Koraput district of Orissa have great potential for producing organic coffee, the minister said while replying to …
Outstandingly organic: The villagers of Meekeri in Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu at the entrance to their village. Though organic farming has been proved to be a low investment technology for growing crops, marketing organically produced crops has not been an easy task especially for some farmers. Lack of information on marketing …
Sir, Christopher Caldwell argues in his column of February 23/24 against any benefit from Fidel Castro's regime. I would argue that one development not mentioned in his article is a benefit for all. That would be the development of a system of local organic agriculture, both rurally and in urban …
