आंध्र प्रदेश का एक छोटा सा गांव अब पूरे देश को रास्ता दिखा रहा है। खास बात यह है कि यह ३४ महिला किसानों की एक पहल है। इन किसानों ने एक अनाज बैंक बनाया है, जो अपने-आप में एक अनूठा उदाहरण है। यह पहल यह साबित करती है कि अगर परंपरागत ज्ञान को ठीक से प्रोत्साहित किया जाए, तो उससे गरीब लोगों की आजीविका के लिए टिकाऊ ज़रिए विकसित...

IF DISRUPTIONS over phone tapping and the India Premier League controversy had not taken Parliament sessions hostage, the Rajya Sabha may have passed the controversial Seeds Bill in the week of April 26, when it was slated to come up for discussion. The government was keen to give this Bill the force of law as soon as possible because the seed industry wants it. The Seeds Bill originally proposed in 2004...

Ambitious planting programmes in Asia and the United States have helped slow the global rate of deforestation but farmers are still cutting trees to clear land at an alarmingly high rate, a U.N. survey released on Thursday shows. Forests absorb and store greenhouse gases so deforestation can exacerbate mean the effects of climate change, said Mette Loyche Wilkie, coordinator of the assessment by the U.N. Food and agriculture Organization. Eduardo Rojas,...

The Orissa agriculture Produce Markets Act was amended in 2006 to allow establishment of private markets and contract farming in the state. However, even four years after that, the act has failed to meet the expected results reasons being poor implementation at the ground level, said experts. A study, “Farmers access to market facilities in Orissa”, released by the Centre for Youth and Social Development reveals this. The act enables any person,...

Food inflation remains extraordinarily high at 17.79%. The government emphasises supply problems caused by last year’s drought, But a bigger and less reversible problem is government-led inflation through big increases in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP). The MSP for wheat and paddy rose only modestly between 2002-03 and 2005-06 , from Rs 620 to Rs 650/ quintal and from Rs 530 to Rs 570/quintal respecticely. But after that the MSP shot...