As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
FIELD experience of farmers and extensive research conducted in the farms of Tamil Nadu-based Sakthi Soyas Ltd., have established the profitability of soyabean intercropping with sugar cane. During the last 3 years, soyabean intercropping with the major cultivated crops was tried and its intercropping with sugar cane was found to …
THE notorious Indian sweet tooth is on a survation diet: red rot, an infectious fungal disease that has devastated the sugarcane crop in western Uttar Pradesh, has left the nation dreadfully short on sugar - at a time when it should be pouring into the domestic market to feed the …
The first documented report on red rot (Colletotrichum falcaturn) dates back to 1901. However, some researchers daim that it was prevalent in the Indian subcontinent centuries ago and was referred to in Buddhist literature as Lai 6alan. Even if the fungus had existed before the British introduced "exotic" varieties, it …
GROWING sugar cane is a tedious affair. It takes a back-breaking 3 days to plough, furrow, plant, apply fertilisers and pesticides and cover the furrows in 1 ha. And because the furrows and planted stalk cuttings, also known as cane sets, are left exposed to the elements, they lose moisture, …
THE recent locust attack has made India and Pakistan suspend their rivalry and launch a large-scale joint operation along their border between Punjab and Sindh. "This is a common problem. We'll have to face it together close to border areas," said Zahid Saeed, Pakistan's acting foreign secretary. The country's cotton …
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 …
AT 52, Ramachandra S Hegde is a broken man. After more than 25 years as a primary schoolteacher in Karnataka, he recently became a headmaster of a primary school in Kumta, about 150 km from Mangalore. But, at the fag end of his career, this talented teacher and rural technologist …
ri Lanka (formerly known Ceylon) is an island with 65,610 km2 in area which is situated close to the Southeast corner of the peninsula of India. Despite its relatively small size, Sri Lanka possesses a high level of biodiversity. Agriculture is the most important sector of the Sri Lankan economy …
Sri Lanka (formerly known Ceylon) is an island with 65,610 km2 in area which is situated close to the Southeast corner of the peninsula of India. Despite its relatively small size, Sri Lanka possesses a high level of biodiversity. Agriculture is the most important sector of the Sri Lankan economy …
