-Down to Earth This can help in targeting global export market, thereby feeding the world population and getting valuable foreign exchange for the country India is predominantly agrarian — 80 per cent of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. Rice and wheat are the staple for 90 per cent of the country’s people.  Till the early 1960’s, the predominant mode of cultivation was what is now called “organic farming”, with...

-Centre for Science and Environment India has one of the highest arable land areas in the world1 with a net sown area of 140.1 million hectares (ha).2 Agriculture and allied sectors employ 54.6 per cent of the total workforce in India (2019–20).3 The country successfully adopted the Green Revolution in the 1960s—an input and chemical-intensive agriculture model—to overcome food scarcity by use of high yield varieties, pesticides, fertilizers, and agriculture machinery...

-The Hindu CM’s economic advisory team studies model for replication. A sustainable natural farming system adopted in southern Rajasthan’s Banswara district, which has created new livelihood sources and brought food security to indigenous tribal communities, has impressed the Chief Minister’s Economic Transformation Advisory Council. The model is being considered for replication elsewhere in the State. A 20-member team of the Council visited Banswara district’s Amlipara village earlier this week to study the techniques...

-Hindustan Times Farm experts say cotton crop is considered the largest consumer of pesticides and insecticides and Punjab can reduce its chemical load with a dedicated policy on organic farming Punjab lacks a policy to promote organic cotton cultivation even as farmers associated voluntarily with it see viability of chemical-free production of the cash crop. Farm experts say cotton crop is considered the largest consumer of pesticides and insecticides and Punjab can reduce...

-Foundation of Agrarian Studies An influential section of Sri Lankan agricultural economists and scientists has deplored the recent course change in the country’s agricultural policy made by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. The decision by the government to ban the use and import of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in pursuit of a “100 per cent organic food producer” status for Sri Lanka has already had disastrous consequences for the economy of the...