-Down to Earth Shailaja Fennell, an expert in gender and household dynamics in agriculture, talks to Down To Earth about millet production in India As India witnesses the central government launch a campaign to promote nutri cereals, Down To Earth talks to an expert about the relevance of millets, its cultural significance and its benefits for women. Shailaja Fennell, university senior lecturer in development studies at the department of land economy in...

-Business Standard The total kharif crop acreage in UP now stands at more than 9 Mn Ha, including 6 Mn Ha of paddy and 1.7 Mn Ha of pulses Lucknow: Bountiful rainfall in arid Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh has not only ended the drought spell of previous years but has also translated into the kharif acreage rising by almost 50,000 hectares this year. The area under different kharif (summer) crops across 7...

-Livemint.com Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, whose report on Western Ghats was rejected by the Kerala government, on what caused the Kerala floods and how the rebuilding process should be carried out Ernakulam (Kerala): Submitted seven years ago on 31 August 2011, ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s report on the biodiverse Western Ghats—a portion of which falls in Kerala—had warned that the combination of massive ecological destruction and extreme weather events trigger disaster. His words proved...

-TheStatesman.com Vijay Jardhari, who started the ‘Beej Bachao Andolan’ Uttarakhand in 1986 along with fellow farmers, has dedicated his life to conserving traditional seeds, which otherwise would have disappeared due to wide acceptability of hybrid seeds among farmers Dehradun: Flashback 1986: Whenever farmer and social activist Vijay Jardhari and his friends would visit any village telling locals to conserve their traditional seeds and to continue consuming millets, people would make fun of...

-ThePrint.in Study shows consumption of biofortified bajra also improves learning and mental abilities among school-going children. New Delhi: Biofortified pearl millet (bajra) can be a sustainable antidote for iron deficiency among adolescents in India and improve cognitive outcomes, a study published in the Journal of Nutrition claims. The study, conducted in Maharashtra among 140 economically-disadvantaged 12-16-year-olds, compared the effects of eating biofortified iron pearl millet to the conventional one. Their cognitive skills were...