-Down to Earth System of crop intensification, specially in rice, has shown sizeable savings in water and seed usage. Yet its adoption has not spread despite incentives SIMPLE TECHNIQUES and manag-ement practices tend to be viewed with suspicion. In the age of input-intensive agriculture which calls for an array of machinery and a host of scientific props, a crop management system whose core basically is protecting the plant's roots to provide better...

-The Hindustan Times ‘Himalayan Glaciers will disappear by 2035'. This was one the very alarming conclusions of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was brought to my attention when I took over as minister for environment and forests in May 2009. Could this really be true, I wondered. I then decided to convene a series of meetings with experts from different institutions across the country. And what...

-India Today India seems to be staring at a possible drought in some regions with the met department reporting a acute deficit in rainfall in many areas. Mumbai has been receiving heavy rainfall and a warning has been issued of a possible high tide of 4.95 metres at 2.28 pm today. High tides above 4 meters are considered as dangerous and so BMC's disaster management department will keep tight security at all beaches...

-Down to Earth India ranked 19th among 45 developing countries assessed by UK-based organisation India has made quite some progress in countering hunger and under-nutrition in the past two years but Nepal and Bangladesh have done better and have shown serious commitment through political will, says the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) report, 2013. The annual HANCI report, prepared by non-profit Institute of Development Studies and International Food Policy Research Institute funded...

-PTI New Delhi: Rising prices of rice in the open market prompted households to reduce consumption and rely on ration shops to buy it at controlled rate, shows a government survey. According to the NSSO survey, Indian families consumed less rice in 2011-12 but their purchases of the commodity under Public Distribution System (PDS) doubled in villages and rose by 66 percent in cities. The monthly per capita rice consumption in villages was...