-The Times of India DEHRADUN: While Uttarakhand celebrates first Harela-Ghee festival to promote greenery and enhance agriculture in the state, the condition of women farmers still remain worrisome. Most of the farmers in the uphill told TOI that they plan to quit farming as it is no more a profitable venture. They say that difficulty in commuting, dearth of proper marketing facility and danger from wild animals have acted as catalysts...

-Livemint.com Increasing women’s ownership of land in rural areas can help cut poverty and boost agricultural output in a country like India where dependence on agriculture is high New Delhi: Increasing women’s ownership of land in rural areas can help cut poverty and boost agricultural output in a country like India where dependence on agriculture is high. Women constitute 30.3% of the total number of cultivators and 42.6% of the agricultural labourers...

-Livemint.com How women in a remote Nagaland village are bringing about transformation rooted in traditional Naga practices Inside a small thatched hut, smoke from the wood fire danced with the sun rays beaming through gaps in the roof. We huddled around the fire, brewed tea and wordlessly consumed the packed breakfast of bread, jam and boiled eggs. An intense cicada cacophony resonated across the hillside; the incessant shrill buzz battering our eardrums...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Government scientists have called for nationwide surveillance to look for a caterpillar native to South America that has slipped into at least four Indian states and could threaten the country's tomato growers and the ketchup-and-puree industries. The scientists at the National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bangalore, worried about the pest's spread, have also initiated efforts to get wasps and predatory bugs to serve as its natural...

-TheWire.in According to NCRB data for 2014, the suicide rate for ‘housewives’ was more than double that of farmers, though the latter gets far more media attention. What does this really indicate? In 2014, National Crime Records Bureau data showed that 20,148 housewives took then own lives across the country. This amounts to approximately 18% of all suicides that year. A recent article in the Economic and Political Weekly by political scientist Peter...