-The Hindu ‘TK Kathir’ is cultivated in accordance with organic farming methods in Ernakulam village KOCHI: A local brand of organic rice named after a farmer’s grandfather and promoted by a political leader. But there is more to ‘TK Kathir’ than just that. Grown by T.D. Robert, a relatively newly converted paddy farmer of Kanjoor village, the brand was much sought after at the recently concluded organic Onam Mela organised by the Jaiva...

-The Times of India Punjab, the leader of green revolution during the '70s, has become disreputable for farmers' suicides in last two decade or so. Usually, these suicides are attributed to farmers' indebtedness to banks and commission agents. However, it is to be noted that bank credit has played a pivotal role in investment into tubewells, tractors, farm mechanization, horticulture, dairy, poultry and forestry all over India, and especially in Punjab and...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: A substantial increase in input costs of materials has led to a decline in crop income over the years. This has resulted in the purchasing power of farmers not improving even though there was an increase in farm output, an official report has said. “By and large, the per hectare real value of output increased for most crops during the period 2004-05 to 2013-14, but the...

-The Hindu Business Line At an organic market in Odisha, middle-class consumers get to interact with the producers of their food and appreciate traditional knowledge systems One Sunday morning in January, I visited an organic produce market located amidst dense bougainvillea creepers and rows of trees, on the grounds of the six-decade-old Christian Hospital in Bissamcuttack, a town in western Odisha’s Rayagada district. In policy and public imagination, Odisha, particularly its western districts...

-The Indian Express Plunged from 8.61 L hectares in 2014 to 4.5 L hectares this year Jalandhar: THE POOR rate of Basmati (fine quality aromatic rice) which Punjab farmers have been getting for the past few years has resulted in reduced acreage and, in the past four years, the area of cultivation has decreased to nearly half under the crop. Scientists say that due to decrease in Basmati cultivation, the area under...