Since the advent of the Green Revolution popularised use of excessive irrigation and fertilisers in India in the 1960s, biodynamic farming, an advanced form of organic farming, had largely faded into oblivion. Biodynamic farming, a return to natural farming free from the use of pesticides and chemicals, is readying for a revival in Punjab, the hub of the Green Revolution in the country. While organic farming is basically a holistic management...

A crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areas IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in...

Over 11,000 acres of land has been brought under organic farming in Punjab and Haryana under a scheme sponsored by the Union Government. While 6,050 acres has so far come under organic farming in Punjab, Haryana too is not lagging behind as 5,000 acre has been brought under organic farming. To promote organic farming in Punjab and Haryana, farmers are being provided technological inputs including training and farm-level advisory services according...

“Governments and international agencies urgently need to boost ecological farming techniques to increase food production and save the climate,” said UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, while presenting the findings at an international meeting on agroecology held in Brussels on 21 and 22 June. Along with 25 of the world’s most renowned experts on agroecology, the UN expert urged the international community to re-think current agricultural...

IT’S NOW “look east’’ policy for the Krishi Bhawan as well. Keen to extend the Green Revolution to the eastern states, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will be holding a day-long conclave with top-level representatives from six states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal — at Kolkata on July 10. On the discussion table will be ways to augment agricultural productivity in this region so as to...