-Tehelka Tired of importing toxic vegetables from Tamil Nadu, Kerala seems to have started a movement in organic vegetable farming It seems vegetables have taken over from water in the ongoing rift between the south Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Having waged a relentless war over the sharing of water from the colonial Mullaperiyar dam for over three decades, the two states have now locked horns over the quality...

-NDTV Chandigarh: Seven acres of pest-infested cotton, an old mother, two sisters and a six-lakh debt, is what Kala Singh has left behind. The 33-year-old Punjab farmer killed himself on Wednesday by drinking the same pesticide that failed to save his crop. In Bhatinda's  Burj Mehma village, his cousin Harbans Singh says Kala Singh was very hard working but could do nothing to save his entire cotton crop from being ruined by...

-Down to Earth In rural India, poisoning accounts for four in 10 suicides due to swallowing of pesticides A World Health Organization (WHO) case study carried out in two Tamil Nadu villages shows the link between limited access to pesticides and the reduction in the number of suicides. A WHO report based on the study says that the suicide rate in these two villages reduced after pesticides were kept in storerooms instead...

-India Today Agriculture powerhouse Madhya Pradesh still suffers from high levels of malnutrition, a contrast that exposes our flawed food policies Madhya Pradesh in mid-March is heavy with the scent of the Mahua blossom. Heaped at village bazaars, and now restricted largely to brewing liquor, its pungent smell is fast disappearing from indigenous tribal stews and curries. On the road to Petlawad and Alirajpur on the western edge of the state, farmers...

-Frontline As rural Karnataka reels under an unprecedented wave of suicides by farmers, the State administration looks on, unwilling to address the reasons that have rendered rural livelihoods fragile. DEATH stalks rural Karnataka. In the 41 days between July 1 and August 10, as many as 245 farmers committed suicide, an average of six a day; since April 1, 284 farmers have taken their lives. As a bewildered State government gropes...