-The Hindu Business Line They account for a third of the agricultural workforce, but don’t get the benefits and opportunities the menfolk enjoy India celebrated its first Women Farmer’s Day on October 15, but the word farmer or kisan is still seen as being synonymous with a male farm worker. This perception is built on two assumptions — first, farming is a masculine profession; and, second, when women are involved in farm...

-The Telegraph The obsession with economic growth and the stock market hides other important facts about the condition of the economy Every time quarterly or monthly reports of the Indian economy are announced there is a reaction in the media. If the results are worse than the previous ones, then impending doom is forecast. If the results are better than the previous ones, there is unbridled optimism about future economic prospects. Both...

-The Hindu Business Line Also moots farming of GM species in closed systems Kochi: A draft national policy on mariculture has mooted mariculture zones by demarcating special areas in the sea for activities such as cage farming, bivalve farming, pen culture, seaweed culture, hatcheries and nurseries based on scientific criteria. The draft policy was formulated by an expert committee formed by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) with A Gopalakrishnan, Director of Central...

-The Hindu Business Line 2.45 million has been lost to urban sprawl between 2010-11 and 2015-16, says survey New Delhi: In an indication of further deepening of a crisis in the agricutural sector, the average size of operational agricultural holdings in the country has declined to 1.08 hectares (ha) in 2015-16 as compared to 1.15 ha in 2010-11, according to the freshly- released provisional agriculture census data released on Monday. Expectedly, the number...

-Livemint.com Merely putting the labour component of other projects in MGNREGA may not lead to any value addition There are several studies and reports that clearly show that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has accomplished its objectives to a large extent. Initially, this government derided the programme as some kind of a dole—but it later acknowledged its role in rural development, if reluctantly. The chief ministers’ council in...