-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: Experts feel that notwithstanding individual causes behind farmers' suicides, so many of them resorting to the extreme step shows that the average peasant in the state is in severe monetary distress. Unofficial sources put the death toll at 40 in the past two months. "Some of the suicides may turn out to be for reasons other than agricultural loss. But, the larger picture indicates financial constraints are...

-The Hindu The system brought down input costs — two to four kg of seeds per acre against 30 kg needed for fertiliser-based, water-intensive farming A model evolved for applying traditional wisdom in farming has also helped in conserving indigenous paddy varieties that are under threat of extinction. The Biodiversity Rainfed Farming System, promoted by Rural Organisation for Social Education, a not-for-profit voluntary organisation, in four blocks of Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu,...

-The Hindu Tirupur (Tamil Nadu): A group of self-help group women from Kerala is showing the way in mechanised paddy transplantation which was now initiated for the first time in a commercial way in Tirupur district this season. Expertise of members of Haritha Vanitha Labour Bank, a women self-help group at Kollangode in Palakkad district, who were trained in mechanised paddy transplantation and harvest techniques by the Kerala Government, are called...

-Outlook Scientist and longtime activist against genetically modified BT seeds, Dr. Vandana Shiva, talks about why BT has a devastating fallout. A sudden pest attack has ruined cotton crops in large parts of Punjab, bringing biotech, or BT Cotton back into focus. Farmers who used bio-fertilisers in the Malwa region of the state are said to be safe from this latest pestilence. But those growing BT cotton have lost everything. There...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...