Inspired by Japanese agricultural scientist Masanobu Fukuoka, Raju Titus has taken to ‘no-till farming' and flaunting the results Three kilometres from Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, on the road to Bhopal, is situated the Titus Farm that proudly flaunts its fertile expanse of 12 acres and a unique farming method that can potentially help overcome the worrying suicidal trend among farmers of the State, and perhaps of the country. The sole but strong...

Twenty-three suicides reported in Adilabad district since November 2011 In a scenario dominated by Bt cotton, only those farmers in Adilabad seem to be safe and happy who have practically given up cotton cultivation. Many farmers, especially those with smaller holdings, are finding the economics of Bt cotton to be really deadly. Some 23 suicides by cotton farmers have been reported in the district since November last year. In a majority of...

As news of record food grain production trickled from the corridors of the agriculture ministry, officials of the storage wing in the adjoining food ministry began working overtime to save the department the embarrassment of plenty. Food minister KV Thomas is under pressure to ensure that the toil of farmers is not wasted. "It's my duty to make sure that food grains don't rot. We are on our way to create...

-The United Nations A sustained rise in prices for raw natural resources and basic agricultural goods is defying long-standing patterns and appears to be hurting poor nations through rising food and fuel costs more than it is helping them through higher revenues for their commodities exports.   That was one of the findings of the Commodities and Development Report 2012, a study launched at the 13th session of the UN Conference on Trade...

The economic crisis, the ecological crisis and the food crisis are a reflection of an outmoded and fossilised economic paradigm. It is a paradigm that grew out of mobilising resources for the war by creating the category of “growth”. It is rooted in the age of oil and fossil fuels. It is fossilised because it is obsolete, a product of the age of fossil fuels. If we have to address...