-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: To preserve indigenous seed varieties and also promote organic farming, the state bio-diversity board will soon open over 110 seed banks across the two states. With the requisite budgets sanctioned for this pilot project, the board is all set to start the programme in the coming weeks. The concept is inspired by the activities of a Karnataka-based NGO which was able to do the same in a...

-Economic and Political Weekly     Sustained and focused efforts have to be made by the Tamil Nadu state government to provide relief and rehabilitation to the drought affected people of the state. S Rajendran (myrajendran@gmail.com) is with the Department of Economics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. Due to the failure of the north-east monsoon in December 2013, Tamil Nadu is witnessing drought like conditions this year, leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress,...

-The Hindu   On the first anniversary of the Uttarakhand disaster, here's a look at issues plaguing the fledgling state. On June 16, it will be a year since Uttarakhand experienced its worst natural disaster. It was also a year of loss, of grief, of recovery and of resilience. While those affected continue to cope and rise, we need to look beyond the disaster in order to unravel the contradictions and challenges that...

-The Navhind Times   THAT climate will remain in a state of flux is a given. The fallout of global warming will be periodic extreme heat and drought, as was experienced by the United States and some other food-exporting countries in 2012, sending food prices close to record levels. At the same time, many countries, including China and India will experience heavy rains and floods from time to time, damaging food production. Even...

-The Hindu   Kannur (Kerala): The ‘kaipad' rice cultivated in the brackish water tracts of northern parts of the State has been included in the Geographical Indications (GI) registry in the country which is part of the Intellectual Property regime. The notification of inclusion of the ‘kaipad' rice varieties in the GI registry followed an application submitted by the Malabar Kaipad Farmers' Society (MKFS) of Ezhome here. The society has been formed for...