-Civil Society Online Bhubaneswar: Laxman Goud, a 35-year-old farmer in Thakurpalli village in Komna block of Nuapada district of Odisha, used to lead a very simple life. He was a devoted follower of Mahima Dharma, a subaltern religion practised by underprivileged castes in Odisha. One morning, he took his life in desperation. He couldn’t repay Rs 19,000 he had borrowed from a local moneylender at 36 per cent interest. Goud had invested...
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Rural distress intensifies
-Business Standard Unless irrigation expands, agriculture will not be drought-proof Even as India celebrates the golden jubilee of the Green Revolution, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has come out with data indicating that nearly 70 per cent of farmers subsist on economically unviable farm holdings of less than a hectare in size. Over one-fifth of farm households report salaried employment, and not farming, as the prime source of their income. Around...
More »Wayanad farmers get rights for 10 traditional rice varieties -KR Rajeev
-The Times of India Kozhikode: Despite a looming agrarian crisis, farmers in Wayanad have become the guardians of critical agro-biodiversity by nurturing traditional rice varieties which are fast becoming extinct. They have won exclusive farmers' rights for 10 more traditional rice varieties under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act (PPV&FR), 2001. With this, the number of rice varieties registered as 'Farmers' varieties of Wayanad' has become 16. Seedcare, an association...
More »Green revolution needs urgent mending -Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard Indian farming was transformed after the mid-60s, on a wave of new agri technology and allied changes, but the costs of this model can no longer be ignored or its addressing be postponed It was around the mid-1960s when the Paddock brothers, the ‘prophets of doom’, predicted that in another decade, recurring famines and an acute shortage of foodgrain would push India towards disaster. Their prophecy was based on a...
More »To subsidise or not: All you need to know about food security -B Sundaresan
-Hindustan Times Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the WTO will have to give a permanent solution to India’s food security issue. HT explains. * What has WTO got to do with food security? The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to facilitate trade among members, who now number at 161. The WTO facilitates trade through rounds of negotiations — there have been nine rounds till now, the latest being the...
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