-Livemint.com Low support price, land acquisition bill, short supply of fertilizers among triggers for clashes, shows analysis New Delhi: Security agencies have warned the government of growing farmer unrest across the country as rural distress worsens. There has been a spurt in clashes among farmers and government agencies, particularly in states such as Maharashtra, which is facing acute rural distress. Till June end, 74 incidents were reported nationwide, twice the number recorded...

-The Times of India TRICHY: An invention to convert human urine into fertilizer for banana Cultivation in 2012 by a principal scientist of the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) here has not gained traction among farmers. Moreover, the central and state governments have not evinced any interest on the invention for the reasons best known to them. Farmers too are unwilling to adopt the invention which could reduce the cost...

-The Hindu When Sreenivasan took up farming, the thumb rule was that pesticides would not be used Kochi: As we go about farming the fields using fertilisers and pesticides, who’s tending the dense and diverse vegetation in forests — which have more fruit-bearing trees and edible roots? The question by Subhash Palekar, noted propounder of zero-budget farming, got actor Sreenivasan thinking about modern farming practices. “Everything that’s there to nurture vegetables and fruits...

-Livemint.com Water availability has not deteriorated only because of the poor monsoon Amartya Sen showed in his seminal work on famines that mass starvation is not necessarily the result of inadequate food supply. He opened up new areas of inquiry that focussed on what have come to be known as entitlement failures. Sen has famously argued that human mistakes forced people into starvation in Bengal in 1943 even though food production in...

-The Hindu Business Line The CPI(M) has many questions for Arun Jaitley on the land ordinance, including where food will be grown Arun Jaitley is clearly seeking to defend the indefensible. What he claims are the obvious answers actually seek to camouflage the hidden intent with which the BJP government brought the ordinance, not once but thrice in succession. The first question to Jaitley is why he as the leader of the House...