-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kozhikode: Dubai's agriculture minister recently chartered a flight to Kozhikode and, accompanied by a horticulture consultant, headed to the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Anakkayam nearby. There the minister, Abdulla Jassim Abdulla M Almarzooqi, placed orders for fruits, spices and ornamental plants. But on his mind was something bigger. He offered free visas and air tickets to the 100 members of the research station's agricultural army, which rather grandly goes...

-The Hindu Switching to renewable energy sources in the country's midday meal programme will save millions of rupees. But only a few kitchens are doing anything about it, says the author. This is a story of facts and figures and sheer size. Of an auditorium-sized room dense with hot steam from cooking. Of seven tonnes of cooked rice and four tanker-loads of steaming sambar that needed 70 pairs of hands for cutting...

-The Hindu Chennai: A team led by an IIT-Madras professor has devised a cheap and effective method to produce clean drinking water. It will soon be possible to produce 10 litres of water - free of bacteria and virus - at just Rs. 10-12 per month, for the daily consumption of a family of five. Prof. T. Pradeep of the department of chemistry at IIT-M and his team have made use of silver...

-The Hindu   Efforts are on to obtain Geographical Indication tag for the fragrant non-Basmati joha rice varieties of Assam As the aroma of Assam's joha rice varieties that make the fragrant pulao, delicious Assamese dessert payash and are a must for a number of ethnic delicacies spread far and wide, the State government has begun the technical exercise to obtain Geographical Indication (GI) tag for joha rice to protect these indigenous varieties...

-Governance Now Rakesh Kumar now swears by organic farming — in three years, he has maximised yield and minimised input cost If Rakesh Kumar is over the moon — and he has every reason to be, having just set the world record in per-hectare potato harvest — he does not show it. An unassuming man, the 35-year-old Nalanda resident smiles when you mention his record but for both Kumar and his family...