The team took part in side events, held ralliesAlso highlighted the significance of small-holderA delegation of non-government organisations assembled under the banner “Beyond Copenhagen” has returned here from Cancun, Mexico, after making interventions for bringing agricultural and food security issues to the mainstream climate negotiations at the 16 {+t} {+h} U.N. Climate Summit. The team took part in the side events, held rallies and lobbied with negotiators during the much...

Social exclusion of children belonging to marginalised groups and barriers to children's access to their rights-based entitlements were highlighted as crucial issues confronting the society at a workshop on children's rights here recently. Activists said children being forced to work as labourers was an “abysmal failure” of all institutions.The day-long workshop was organised jointly by Save the Children, Prayatna, Society for All Round Developemnt (SARD), Consumer Unity and Trust Society...

They have done much more than uplift their own lives. Members of the city-based  Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa), it appears, will now be playing an instrumental role in the empowerment of women farmers in Africa! It seems likely that India and the US will together replicate Sewa's agriculture model in Africa, for the betterment of the women farmers there. A discussion to this effect took place during US president Barack...

he Haryana government has decided to extend the benefit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to small and marginal farmers in the state, an official said Tuesday.Small and marginal farmers will now be allowed to be engaged for labour work in the state for various development schemes in their respective areas, said Atmaram Godhara, deputy director in the agriculture department.'Besides providing free work like land levelling,...

Every passing day makes it clear that the proposed food security law may not come by for a while. One report quoting the Planning Commission even suggested that it can be expected only in 2012. This Twelfth Plan (2012-17) launch has support from the concerned dual Ministry of Agriculture as well as Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. In that eventuality it does mean a surge in food insecurity.A dispassionate...