-Livemint.com Farm activists, environmentalists spar with pesticide companies over cause of more than 40 deaths Mumbai: The deaths of over 40 farmers and farm workers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region since July has put the spotlight on the abuse of pesticides and lack of protection for those spraying them, even as a committee investigating the case prepares to submit its findings this week. A seven-member special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Maharashtra government...

-The Financial Express For most consumers, ‘organic’ is probably a code for ‘safe’ or ‘residue-free’, not necessarily produce grown without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. But marketers use the tag to tap into a seam of fear in some urban parents who are so anxious about health that they are willing to pay for advertising that spells ‘well-being’. A brand of ‘organic’ jaggery, for example, on the shelves of Reliance Fresh stores...

-Hindustan Times The Uttarakhand government has finalised a policy to double income of small and marginal farmers in the next five years by encouraging them to adopt the best farm practices, with the overall plan of keeping a check on forced migration from hills Dehradun: The Uttarakhand government has finalised a policy to double income of small and marginal farmers in the next five years by encouraging them to adopt the best farm practices,...

-Livemint.com Drastic fall in ownership of male cattle in rural India is testimony to the benefits of farm mechanization in agriculture New Delhi: Delivering his customary Vijayadashami speech, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat advised farmers to adopt “cow-based farming” practices as a way out of poverty. “When we talk about farming with less capital, organic in nature, naturally the point is raised that the large number of farmers in our...

-The Hindu Over the years we have lost over a lakh varieties of native rice. One district in Odisha is rediscovering some of them It is a balmy winter morning when I meet Kamli Bataraa, an ebullient Adivasi farmer, at her home in Belugan, in southern Odisha’s Koraput district. There is a hum across the village from the threshing of just-harvested paddy. When I ask Kamli about the rice varieties she grows,...