-The Business Standard The Punjab experience suggests rising agricultural productivity doesn't automatically translate into better jobs,but the story doesn't end there. A recent paper on the post-Green revolution economic transition of Punjab's peasantry, published by Punjab Agricultural University professors Sukhpal Singh and Shruti Bhogal, suggests that increasing productivity of rural workers is only one part of the agriculture to manufacturing transition. Punjab has the most mechanized agricultural sector in the country,...

-The Tribune The community has to pay the cost of environmental degradation if sustainable agricultural practices are not followed. Food can also be produced by in-built provisions for ecological services. For this, sustainability issues have to be addressed with policy support. An ecosystem is a dynamic, complex, functional unit of diverse living organisms, physical environment and humans are its integral part. The wellbeing of mankind depends upon food, water, fibre, medicine, flood...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The small peasantry in agriculturally advanced Punjab faces a severe economic crisis. Though the total workforce has increased over time, the proportion engaged in agriculture has been falling and the number of marginal and small holdings has been declining. The farm surpluses of indebted farmers are very low, and 14% of marginal and 9% of small farmers are effectively bankrupt. Low profitability has prompted many small farmers...

Punjab, which was known to be the land of agricultural prosperity during the 1970s and 1980s thanks to the Green Revolution, has increasingly witnessed its small and marginal farmers being pushed out of the agricultural sector. Based on a survey (conducted in 2012-13) of 288 farmers from 12 villages—2 villages from each of the 6 districts that represent various agro-climatic zones—the study by Sukhpal Singh and Shruti Bhogal reveals that...

-IANS   Bangalore: A study by an international team using satellite and ground-based instruments has shown that crop residue burning, a common practice in northern India and particularly in Punjab, is contributing to atmospheric pollution over the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) that may have climate and health implications. "Every year, during the post-monsoon season (October-November), extensive agricultural crop residue burning takes place mainly in the northwestern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and western...