-Down to Earth Up to 168,000 people kill themselves by ingesting pesticides annually, it said Pesticide accounted for as many as one in every five suicides across the world, a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report on suicide prevention has said. The report titled Preventing Suicide has been published in the form of a resource for pesticide registrars and regulators to educate them on how to prevent suicides due to pesticide consumption. The report...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...

-TheWire.in The Centre says the method will improve crop productivity and reduce input costs, but it remains unclear which scientific studies – if any – these conclusions are derived from. New Delhi: During her budget speech in July, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to widespread farmers’ distress by saying that they would be encouraged to adopt a ‘zero budget’ technique that would take India’s agriculture sector ‘back to basics’. Zero-budget natural farming...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Zero-budget natural farming’ sounds fine in principle, but is vague on many specifics By announcing a push to zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF) in the Budget, the Centre seemed to have reiterated its policy support for non-chemical-based farming methods. However, ZBNF has kicked up something of a stir, not least because of the positions taken by the individual associated with it, Subash Palekar. Palekar has gone to great lengths...

-The Hindu * Will this form of chemical-free agriculture increase farmers’ incomes? Where are the pitfalls? The story so far: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thrust zero budget farming into the spotlight in the first Budget speech of the 17th Lok Sabha earlier this month, calling for a “back to the basics” approach. She said, “We need to replicate this innovative model through which in a few States, farmers are already being trained...