A fast growing economy is a thirsty economy and India is no exception—with the country’s water supply already under great strain, India must reassess its consumption to meet escalating demands for water to produce food and energy. Business-as-usual water practices cannot remain the same in India as the economy and its demand for freshwater grows over the coming decades. With an astounding 75% of freshwater already used for agriculture in India,...

Two walls of extremes are closing in fast on mankind. The spectre of climate change threatens agriculture, especially in developing countries where farming is dominated by smallscale farmers heavily relying on rainfall. Along with this, is the scourge of burgeoning population, which is likely swell to 9 billion in the next 40 years. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), about 14% of the 6.5-billion world population are affected by...

Shortage of godowns for storing the kharif paddy is turning out to be a major issue, as millers expressed their inability to procure the commodity in the absence of adequate storage space. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has convened an all-party meeting on Monday to elicit their views on procurement-related issues and brief them about the Government's preparedness to meet the farmers' rabi requirements. PM to be briefed A delegation of Congress leaders is...

Speakers at a State-level seminar here today vehemently opposed the proposal of the Orissa government to supply water from Hansua River in Jagatsinghpur district to proposed Posco steel plant at Paradip. Organized by Odisha Jala Surakhya Janamanch, the seminar was attended among others by hundreds of farmers from areas like Biridi, Raghunathpu, Tirtol, Erasama and Balikuda of the district. The Janamanch convener Chittaranjan Mohanty told the gathering that Hansua is...

VISHAL, the son of a farm labourer in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, is almost four. He should weigh around 16kg (35lb). But scooping him up from the floor costs his nursery teacher, a frail woman in a faded sari, little effort. She slips Vishal’s scrawny legs through two holes cut in the corners of a cloth sack, which she hooks to a weighing scale. The needle stops at...