-The Hindu Business Line Though migration of labour from the east has helped revive the plantations in southern India, questions remain on the long-term implications, Vishwanath Kulkarni reports As the harvest season starts in Coorg, Karnataka, coffee planter MC Kariappa has a lot of issues to contend with - productivity, Weather and, the biggest worry of all in recent times, paucity of labourers. So when a dozen labourers from Assam landed at...

-The Indian Express I recently witnessed protests in Berlin, against industrialised farming and the planned free-trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, under the banner "We Are Fed Up". Trade issues resonate across Europe, but in India, farmers are oblivious to the inevitable consequences of trade agreements. However, the government seems keen to address issues related to farmers. Yet, success on the farm front can be delusional if...

-The Tribune In India, mounting demographic pressures are leading to soil degradation. About 17 per cent of the global human and 11 per cent of livestock population is being sustained on a mere 2 per cent of the world's land and 4 per cent of its freshwater resources. The year 2015 has been designated as the International Year of the Soils by the United Nations. Recently, December 5 was commemorated as World...

-The United Nations Devastating Weather patterns and increasing temperatures will last into the foreseeable future as global warming is expected to continue, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed today as it explained that 2014's ranking as the "hottest year on record" is part of a larger climate trend. "The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud clarified today in a...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: 'Smart Agriculture' is a concept that is being proposed by scientists, experts and planners as an answer to climate change which, along with other causes, is making agriculture unsustainable. Smart agriculture is also being projected to increase overall productivity, generate more employment and also conserve environment. Speaking to TOI, JC Katyal, former deputy director general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and former vice-chancellor of Haryana...