-Outlook In addition to amending the Rules of the Forest Rights Act, greater attention needs to be paid to changing the Land Acquisition Act   There is no explicit provision in the Forest Rights Act, 2006 for obtaining permission of the Gram Sabha for diversion of forest lands to non-forest purposes. However, Section 4(5) of the Act prevents government to evict any forest dweller unless the recognition process as provided in the...

-PTI Washington: India-born Mexican scientist Sanjaya Rajaram has been awarded the World Food Prize 2014 for agricultural research that spurred an astonishing increase in world wheat production. The 71-year-old Rajaram, however, played down his contribution and thanked Farmers for their "innovative spirit". "It is a collective achievement rather than that of a single person," the scientist told the award ceremony audience at the Iowa State University in America. The award "honours the innovative spirit...

-FirstPost.com What compelled a group of leading economists from India and abroad to shoot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the government's job scheme - the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA? Is it to speak out against the government's desperation to throttle the scheme or did the economists sense any ulterior motive behind the government's move? A section of prominent Indian economists working out of the country or...

-SciDev.net   * Watershed development for farming is an ancient Indian practice * Irrigation is increasingly being seen as the answer to water scarcity * Good water management, rather than irrigation, is essential for resilient agriculture Thiruvananthapuram: Watershed development that primarily involves increasing irrigation is not the answer to water scarcity prevalent in Indian agriculture, says a new study. Watershed development (WSD) practices like soil and water conservation and small scale rainwater harvesting have been...

-The Hindu In Indo-Gangetic plains there may be a 50 per cent fall in wheat area New Delhi: Rural poverty in parts of Asia could be exacerbated due to negative impacts from climate change on rice production, and a general increase in food prices and the cost of living, says the report of working group two of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. Launched on Thursday, the report Climate...