-The Hindu IR8, the high-yielding rice variety helped India fight famine, turns 50 this month In 1967, when a 29-year-old N. Subba Rao sowed a semidwarf variety of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he wouldn't have thought he would be part of a revolution in rice cultivation. What Dr. Rao sowed in his farm was IR-8, a rice variety developed by the International Rice Research...

-The Financial Express There is by now substantial agreement amongst analysts that a strategy for dal production which ensures supplies and a reasonable degree of self-reliance is sorely needed, and the country cannot go from one crisis to another without a well-worked-out policy. However, the discussion is flawed on its assessments of what governments can and cannot do and on the lack of a short and medium strategy to enhance production....

-The Indian Express The poor adoption of a machine that can help avoid paddy stubble burning is an example of policy failure. Jalandhar/ Ludhiana: There is virtual unanimity — at least among scientists and aware farmers — that the ultimate solution to the recurrent problem of paddy stubble burning at this time of the year lies in the ‘Happy Seeder’ developed by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in 2002. But more than...

Delhi's air is not fit to inhale. Experts argue that prolonged exposure to toxic air could lead to serious health hazards like heart and lung diseases, various types of cancer etc. But is it the case that the smog, which engulfed the entire National Capital Region (NCR) and many of the north Indian cities during October-November was entirely caused due to burning of firecrackers in Diwali or because of vehicular...

-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...