-Kractivist.org As Scroll.in's Mridula Chari and Harsha Vadlamani search for clouds along the west coast, they meet farmers who are attempting to return to a traditional system of alternating paddy and shrimp cultivation. Each year, Kerala's backwaters attract around 1.8 crore visitors to stay on houseboats, get lengthy massages and gawk at elephants. Few tourists realise that the placid backwaters are the site of a low-key battle - a battle to preserve...

-The Hindu   Kannur (Kerala): The ‘kaipad' rice cultivated in the brackish water tracts of northern parts of the State has been included in the Geographical Indications (GI) registry in the country which is part of the Intellectual Property regime. The notification of inclusion of the ‘kaipad' rice varieties in the GI registry followed an application submitted by the Malabar Kaipad Farmers' Society (MKFS) of Ezhome here. The society has been formed for...

-The Financial Express   With newer varieties and improvement in yield, packaging and marketing, basmati-long hailed as the ‘king of rice'-is spreading its sweet aroma worldwide WALK INTO any supermarket today and the most eye-catching items will be in the section selling packaged rice. Rice, that humble, century-old staple of the Indian diet, has emerged from its traditional image-grains in an open gunny bag-to a slick new avatar. Today, rice, and basmati in...

-DNA   Workshop showcases benefit of SRI technique that requires less water and input, but provides better yield Ahmedabad: Paddy cultivators in Navsari and Dangs reap fortune in their fields with the new system of rice intensification (SRI), a methodology of crop cultivation has yielded rich dividends. Experts who spoke about the unique technique compared it with other techniques that require a initial high input cost, and said this method of cultivation on...

-The Hindu Business Line   Pokkali cultivation gets help from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and fisheries research body KOCHI: Kerala's Pokkali farming, a unique saline tolerant rice variety that is facing extinction, could be on a revival path if efforts of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Ernakulam) under the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute bear fruit. This old and traditional method of cultivation has been reduced to less than 1,000 hectares in the coastal areas of Ernakulam...