-The New Indian Express CHENNAI: Five years ago, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had put an indefinite moratorium on the commercial cropping of Monsanto’s Bt Brinjal. However now, the Centre is considering commercial cultivation of a genetically modified hybrid variety of mustard. Following news reports on the move of the application for approval of GM Mustard to the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee in the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change...
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In Drought-Prone Maharashtra, This Farmer Leaves His Entire Crop for Birds to Feed On -Manabi Katoch
-TheBetterIndia.com Ashok Sonule and his family struggle every day to feed twelve mouths. But, whereas most farmers in the vicinity have barren fields, his are lush with jowar. And what does he do with it? Leaves the entire harvest to feed birds. He has not even installed a scarecrow and ensures the water bowl is always full for the thirsty birds. Read on. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry...
More »In Drought-Struck Odisha, Aid Fails To Stop Farmers Suicides -Tazeen Qureshy
-NDTV In Drought-Struck Odisha, Aid Fails To Stop Farmers Suicides Khurda, Odisha: After her husband Abhimanyu, a 52-year-old farmer in Odisha's Khurda district, committed suicide by consuming poison last month, Pratima Baliarsingh is yet to recover from the trauma. Pratima, 45, now has to repay an almost two lakh rupee-loan that her husband took from various banks and villagers. The district administration gave her a cheque of Rs. 20,000 after her husband's death but...
More »They don’t go to the field -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express There is a worrying dearth of Indian economists working on agriculture today. In his classic Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went, John Kenneth Galbraith observed how the economics profession had a well-defined order of precedence. At the top were the economic theorists and specialists in banking and finance. At the bottom of the hierarchy were agricultural economists. George F. Warren from Cornell University was even worse — a...
More »Nutrition, effective cash transfers: How to ensure social protection -Ashim Choudhury
-Hindustan Times Small and marginal farmers comprise 85% of the land holdings in India. Social protection is a survival tool for the rural poor, who have no easy access to wage labour. India recognised the need for social protection early on and introduced a slew of social protection programmes like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) provides 100 days of assured labour wages...
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