-The Hindu     Farmer plans to set up a farm showcasing 250 varieties Mysore: Known to conserve indigenous varieties of rice from different parts of the country, S.R. Srinivasmurthy, paddy cultivator from T. Narsipura in Mysore district, has augmented his rich collection in recent years and plans to set up a demonstration farm this season. The demonstration farm will feature about 250 rice varieties, collected by him over the years. A "farmer by accident", who...

-The Guardian Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties   Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste - rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had...

-Down to Earth Japan's Sapporo brewery patents Indian barley gene without giving benefit to farmers Ballia district, the easternmost part of Uttar Pradesh, is a flood-prone area that extends towards Bihar from the confluence of the Ganga and the Ghaghra. Over decades, its farmers, mostly marginal and small, have been cultivating barley, exchanging its seeds, improving the varieties and giving these to a government project to cull the best of the lot....

-The Times of India ALLAHABAD: A farmer of Varanasi, who developed an indigenous variety of wheat containing 12% iron -- far more then what is being cultivated in most of the country - is out to sell the idea of cheap seeds. Honoured twice by the President for his pioneering work, this modest peasant has over 400 varieties of high-yielding paddy and over 120 varieties of wheat and pulses to his...

-Down to Earth A Kerala village grows organic pokkali rice after 25 years Harvest of pokkali rice in Kerala's Ezhupunna village, which began on October 27 and lasted three weeks, was nothing short of a local event. After all, the indigenous, saline and flood-resistant rice variety was cultivated in the village after 25 years. People in the village had to wage a long battle to be able to cultivate the crop once...