-The Telegraph Some clauses of the draft of the Indian Forest Act 2019 are extraordinarily undemocratic Forests are considered planetary resources of great importance: as carbon sinks, as repositories for biodiversity, as effective tools for local climate control, and as a source of timber and related produce. Forests have been dwelling places for people, too. It is important from the point of view of sustainable development that forests be preserved and biodiversity...

-The Hindu Business Line Working from a mud house in a remote Maharashtra village, Rahibai Popere is taking farming back to its roots Pune: Twenty years ago, when her grandson fell ill, Rahibai Popere was convinced vegetables and foodgrains containing ‘poison’ had made the child unhealthy. She asked her son to stop buying vegetables and foodgrains grown using hybrid seeds, chemicals and fertilisers. And then started a journey to conserve and save indigenous...

-The Hindu KCR appeals to pattadar ryots to have a benevolent attitude towards tenants Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao defined in the Assembly on Saturday that only those having cultivable patta landholding are recognised as farmers as matter of government policy and it’s they who will get the benefit of any government scheme aimed at the farming community. “It’s not our (government) policy to harass the farmers by creating problems in the...

-The Indian Express ‘A farmer’s distress can be handled if he does not have to worry about his next meal’ If you ask Chate Gnaneshwar — from Emaikunta in Indervelli mandal of Adilabad district or other farmers who cultivate foodgrains for self-consumption like him — of a solution to control farmer suicides, he is most likely to point out towards ensuring food security for the poor agriculture community. “The distress brought upon...

-The Indian Express Called Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, the scheme will benefit about 12 crore small and marginal farmers and will come into effect retrospectively from December 1, 2018, and the first instalment will be disbursed before the elections. New Delhi: In a bid to woo the farming community ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his Budget speech on Friday announced a Rs 6,000...