-TheWire.in Scientists have found that, compared to rice, alternative grains experienced smaller declines in yield under climate extremes. However, there is a catch. Alternative grains like millets and sorghum could help India cope better with the impact of global heating on agriculture and variations in supply than continuing to rely on rice and wheat alone. This is the heartening conclusion of a new study, but it also cautions that the cultivation area...

-Scroll.in Even at night, people living in densely-built, low-income urban neighbourhoods get no respite. As India stares at one of the longest heatwaves in three decades – which so far has claimed over 200 lives – experts warn that the scorcher will impact people in poor urban neighbourhoods for weeks after even after it is over. In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment in April, researchers mapped and...

-Deccan Chronicle Encephalopathy is a disease in which the functioning of the brain is affected. Whose children go to bed hungry? In a country with glaring social and economic disparities, hunger is a deeply political issue which many would like to dodge. But that is at the heart of the big story about the recent child deaths in Muzaffarpur, Bihar’s litchi growing belt. At the time of writing, more than 100 children are...

-The Hindu Efforts to make agriculture climate-resilient must be scaled up and consolidated The pervasiveness of climatic aberrations and the associated socio-economic vulnerability are now widely recognised and experienced across the globe. The Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on “Global Warming at 1.5°C” distinctly propagates the need to strengthen and enhance existing coping capacity and to remain committed to the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The report...

-Down to Earth Monsoon ditched them so bad that they stare at lowest rain deficit in 13 years This year, the north-eastern region of India has been witness to a series of weather anomalies. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the eastern and north-eastern regions have together received 31 per cent less rainfall than normal in this south-west monsoon (SWM) season as on July 25, 2018. If the scenario does not...