Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here on Sunday that the State government would initiate action against officials of the Agriculture Department and Plantation Corporation of Kerala Ltd. who endorsed the use of Endosulfan in Kasaragod district.Speaking after inaugurating Karshaka Bhavanam at Anayara here, he said a section of agricultural scientists who certified the use of the deadly pesticide were also responsible for the human tragedy caused by exposure to Endosulfan.The...

Union minister of state for Agriculture, K V Thomas, today said Kerala, which had not fully utilised the allocation of Rs 700 crore under the Vidharba package, should utilise the remaning nearly rs 400 crore for Organic cultivation.About rs 400 crore was yet to be utilised and this could be made use for propagating organic cultivation in the the state, thomas said at the sidelines of a function here.The miniser...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...

International prices of most agricultural commodities are on the rise again. Prices of major food crops have increased disconcertingly, with wheat, rice, maize and soybean registering double-digit increases between June and October. Wheat prices increased alarmingly by more than 71%, while maize recorded a more than 50% spike. The Food Price Index released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the most widely accepted barometer for food prices, also painted...

Some 350 million people living in rural areas being lifted out of extreme poverty in the past decade, according to The Rural Poverty Report, published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations (UN) agency. However, in spite of this, more than a billion people around the world still continue to suffer. The UN describes extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 (80p) a day. But factors such as...