-Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Blog For those who see agroecological approaches as necessary for achieving the food, health, and environmental targets of post 2015 agenda, agroecology is not only central to maintaining ecosystem integrity, but also to realizing food sovereignty of those involved in food production and consumption. IATP's new report, Scaling up Agroecology: Toward the Realization of the Right to Food, begins from five principles of agroecology, presents examples...

-The Hindustan Times Chandigarh: Pesticide residues are present in blood and urine of every fourth person of Punjab's cotton belt, a Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) study has found. The study has established that around 23% of the people living in rural areas of the state's cotton belt have residues of pesticide in their blood. The study titled 'Reducing pesticide toxicity in the exposed population of Punjab' and funded by...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government should have calculated the costs of possible retaliation by other states before banning potato export from Bengal, agriculture experts have said. For now, no state has threatened a payback for the ban, clamped despite pleas from the chief ministers of Odisha and Assam after a shortage pushed up potato prices in Bengal. As the Bengal administration grapples with the problem, importers of essential foodstuff have sounded...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Farmers have planted wheat in 15.19 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing rabi (winter) season, more than double the area covered a year earlier, the Agriculture Ministry said today. Wheat was sown in 6.46 lakh hectares in the same period last year, latest government data showed. Sowing of wheat, the main rabi crop, starts at the end of October and harvesting begins in April. "Area under the crop is...

-The Hindustan Times     Burning of agricultural waste in Punjab in India and Pakistan in the last one week may be the reason behind the thick smog that has engulfed entire northern India, according to new satellite images released by Nasa. Latest photographs released by US satellite agency showed hundreds of fire hot-spots (in red) across Punjab in India and Pakistan on October 27 and on November 5 confirming local pollution is not...