JAMUGURIHAT, Sept 6 – At a time when the cultivators of Assam are spending their days in hopelessness and agony because of the long spell of drought, a new method of cultivation named SRI has brought a ray of hope to them as by this method Ahu rice production can be doubled. This new method of cultivation SRI (System of Rice Intensification) brought from Madagascar, has yielded desired results from...

VILLUPURAM: Collector R. Palanisamy has urged farmers to adopt the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to improve yield and earnings. He was speaking at a special mass contact programme held in Chinnababusamudhram near here on Thursday. Mr. Palanisamy said the system required less water, manpower and seeds, but the yield would be one-and-half times that of traditional farming practices. He said mass contact programme was now being held on a rotation...

What’s more important to a hungry child? Food now, or future environmental worries? I know I’m on sticky ground here, but it would be hypocritical not to ask the question when the world is mourning the death of one person who, literally, helped save millions in the developing world — in our part of it, especially — from hunger. In his lifetime, Norman Borlaug was hailed as the father of...

More Indians go to bed hungry today than they did on the eve of Independence 62 years ago So, more Indians go to bed hungry today than they did on the eve of Independence sixty two years ago. The per capita calorie intake, experts say, has dropped to what it was at the end of World War II. On top of it now, over 25 per cent of the country...

A good reason why we must not rejoice the late resumption of monsoon rains is that much of the damage is already done and is irreparable. In over 60 percent of India’s agricultural belt, particularly in the North-Western parts, there will be no rabi harvest. Hence, late arrival of rains hardly mitigates the challenges of lower agricultural production, shrinking of rural purchasing power, high inflation of food prices and loss...