-Down to Earth A global report focuses on sustainable agricultural growth, increased wages and creation of off-farm jobs to bring about rapid rural development. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) report says economic growth alone is not enough to eliminate rural poverty, particularly in the Asia and Pacific region. “The rapid economic growth in the region has come at a cost. Urbanisation has led to a wide income gap between rural and...

-The Telegraph Cuttack: The threat of extinction looms large over the state's natural fish stocks in rivers and lakes because of unregulated inland fishing during the breeding season. The impact of unrestricted fishing is already being felt in the state's rivers, especially in the Mahanadi. There has reportedly been a drastic downslide in fish catch. The annual freshwater fish production in the state is around three lakh tonnes. While 87 per cent fishes...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Inland Fisheries production has shot up fourfold in Tamil Nadu in the last three years, said state agriculture secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi on Tuesday. Addressing a gathering on the occasion of the 35th foundation day celebrations of Nabard here, he said the government had taken steps for enhancing the production in inland Fisheries. Places like Mettur and Bhavani Sagar were focused and facilities at an outlay of...

-The Hindu Business Line Points out that many will starve and lose their livelihood without govt support New Delhi: Citing the vulnerability of its small-scale fishing fleet and the need to ensure food security, India has demanded special and differential treatment in fishery subsidy disciplines being negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that support to small and marginal fishermen gets exempted. In a recent meeting in Geneva on laying ground rules...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...