The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-The Hindu Marginal farmers, landless too add numbers: study As the farmers’ protest against the Centre’s farm laws at the State borders of Delhi is about to complete a year, a recent socio-economic study by researchers associated with the Punjabi University at Patiala says most of those who lost their lives during the movement are “small and marginal farmers” and “landless cultivators”. The study titled “Separating Wheat from the Chaff: Farm Laws, Farmers’...

-Down to Earth A survey in Haryana last year found that 45 per cent of 218 organic farmers got yields for wheat better than the state official average yield  The relative merit of organic farming is recognised. Still, it is usually recommended only for areas of low chemical usage and not for intensively farmed areas such as those where the Green Revolution took place in the 1960s like Punjab, Haryana and western...

-The Hindu Union Commerce Ministry clarifies after European Commission’s charge. The Centre has identified a Maharashtra-based exporter as the source of the broken rice flagged in Europe as contaminated with genetic modifications (GM) earlier this year, the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday. It added that the 500-tonne consignment was given a non-GMO certification by an independent agency before it was shipped to France. While reiterating that GM rice is not grown commercially in India,...

-PTI/ The New Indian Express These special traits crop varieties also include those that address the anti-nutritional factors found in some crops that adversely affect human and animal health. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched 35 crop varieties with special traits -- developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) -- to address the twin challenges of climate change and malnutrition. The new crop varieties were dedicated to the...