A tiny road flanked by lush turmeric and maize fields veers off the state highway from Dharmapuri to Harur in Tamil Nadu towards Vachathi, a tribal village that has hungered for justice for nearly two decades after an irreparable tragedy destroyed its peace. Nineteen years ago, a large team of Tamil Nadu Police and officers from the forest and revenue departments swooped down on the village nestled in the foothills...

PMO suggests adopting cluster approach to boost food output; FCI asked to enhance storage capacity With the National Food Security Bill set to be introduced in Parliament, the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has taken initiatives to boost the farm sector, including steps to increase the production of pulses and oilseeds. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), after a meeting on Tuesday to review the agriculture sector, has asked the agriculture...

-The Hindu Business Line   The uncertainty over adopting agricultural biotechnology is in no one's interest, given the high food inflation and dependence on imports. With food inflation climbing once again above 10 per cent, it has become even more urgent for the government to provide a a clear mandate in terms of policy support, the technology options and requisite investment for domestic agriculture. Output growth, especially of proteins, has been decisively trailing...

Garhwali villagers resist new central farming plans, stick by age-old ways attuned to nature Jardhargaon is a sprawling cluster of villages tucked away in the Himalayan folds in Tehri district of Garhwal. A panoramic view of pine- and sal-covered mountains, green and freshly showered, surrounds us, as little streams spout out of boulders at every turn of the winding hill roads and clouds hang like a dark cover overhead. But...

The Seed Bill 2010 -- which stayed in controversy because its initial draft seemed to favour agri-business rather than the farmer -- is now ready to get debated and passed in the current session of Parliament. Despite consultations, first in a Parliamentary Standing Committee and later in an all party meeting, a large number of farmers’ unions, opposition parties and civil society groups believe that the Bill fails to protect...