-The Indian Express In the end, the Madden Julian Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole failed to cancel out the warming of the Pacific — a situation the Met Office had predicted as early as in April, giving govts time to prepare. In June, a rain-bearing weather phenomenon called Madden Julian Oscillation, or MJO, came to India’s rescue. July was bad, but a few timely interventions by convectional, or heat-induced, rainfall in...

-Livemint.com With barely weeks left for the to begin its retreat, it is emerging that India will close the year with a deficit much higher than what was initially forecast  Another year and another bad monsoon. What were the odds? The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast this year’s monsoon—like last year—to be below normal. At that time, we all hoped that the IMD had got it wrong—the economy was on the...

-IPS News GUNTUR, India: Thirty-seven-year-old Kode Sujatha stands in front of a hut with a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by a group of men shouting angrily and jostling one another for a spot at the front of the crowd. Each of the boatmen, who carry sand mined from a nearby river to the shore every day, wants to be paid before the others.   Sujatha stares hard at them, holds up a piece of paper...

-The Hindu An enriched soil has withstood the vagaries of monsoon and a depleting ground water table to provide an enviable sugarcane yield in a farm in Puliangudi of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. Sustained attention given to soil health using organic inputs has enabled V. Antonisamy reap 65 to 70 tonnes of sugarcane per acre in his farm. Explaining the methodology adopted to enhance soil quality, Mr. Antonisamy, who has been...

-The Hindu These crops can fix atmospheric nitrogen through their root nodules. This reduces the use of chemical fertilisers like urea and ammonium nitrate. At a time when decreasing soil fertility especially due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and prolonged cultivation of commercial crops has become a cause for concern among farmers, legume vegetables have turned out to be a boon for addressing this issue. Scientists feel that growing the legume vegetables...