-IANS Bhubaneswar: Odisha will empower tribal women through diary cooperatives so that they get opportunities to earn more, an official said on Wednesday. State-run dairy cooperative Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Limited (OMFED) has received Rs.46.45 crore from the union tribal affairs ministry to implement this, OMFED chairman Bishnupada Sethi said. Tribal women play a significant role in animal husbandry. Women constitute 70 percent of the labour force in livestock farming, while...

-The Hindu Vijayawada: As agricultural production in Andhra Pradesh is being increasingly impacted by adverse weather, farmers are searching for ways to mitigate the loss. Lost in desperation, they are not realising that there is a widely available tree which enriches the soil fertility multifold with little human intervention and negligible investments. Commonly known as ‘fencing plant’, it is known for many generations but the farming community has almost forgotten it under...

-IPS News TIKAMGARH: Eighty-year-old Chenabai Kushwaha sits on a charpoy under a neem tree in the village of Chitawar, located in the Tikamgarh district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, staring intently at a dictaphone. “Please sing a song for us,” urges the woman holding the voice recorder. Kushwaha obliges with a melancholy tune about an eight-year-old girl begging her father not to give her away in marriage. The melody melts...

-Livemint.com &NBSp; Sharp agriculture growth is a necessary factor to beat anti-incumbency The modest price hike in minimum support prices of some crops this week has been lauded as good economics. But the question that will be haunting the government is whether it has done enough to alleviate the distress in rural areas, especially when the Bihar polls later this year are seen as a litmus test for the rule of the...

Gujarat, which is hailed as a role model of growth and development, witnessed the lowest calorie intake per person per day in rural areas among the 17 major states of India during 2011-12. This has been revealed by the 68th round National Sample Survey report entitled Nutritional Intake in India 2011-12 (See chart 1). It can be inferred from the NSSO report that except Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, the daily...