-101reporters.com Kala Jeera rice cultivation and its marketing through an e-commerce platform bring better income and social status to women farmers, while also ensuring storage of good quality seeds for future needs Koraput, Odisha: Odisha’s near-extinct Kala Jeera rice is making a comeback, thanks to the tribal women who are cultivating and marketing it to the outside world from Machhara village in Koraput district with the help of MS Swaminathan Research Foundation...

-Livemint.com Just as much of today’s world is locked into fossil-fuel dependence, Indian farmers are in a trap of water-guzzling crop production that is not environmentally sustainable. The annual United Nations climate conference underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, has entire days devoted to two crucial sectors that directly impact the lives of millions in India: agriculture and water. At a time of stagnant incomes and groundwater depletion, we must enable farmers to...

-India.mongabay.com * After the drop in wheat production due to heat waves, extreme weather events have now cast a shadow on rice production, which is likely to drop beyond centre’s initial 6% loss estimate. * In six years (2015-21), the country lost 33.9 million hectares of the cropped area due to floods and excess rains and 35 million hectares due to drought, which are likely to intensify as various studies predict. * Centre...

-Millennium Post New Delhi: Despite a strong opposition of environmental clearance to GM mustard by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, which is an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and other activists, the government has 'decided' to go ahead with the field trial of the transgenic crop and make India self-reliant in oilseed production.  According to a senior official in the Environment Ministry, the government has decided to provide all the needed support to the...

-The Tribune The next food system transformation has to be based on diversity and building on food sovereignty. The future global food system has to be back in the hands of 3.6 billion peasants, small farmers, pastoralists and fishermen where biodiversity protection, income security and climate justice go hand in hand. SOME years back, a study by the University of Sussex (UK) showed a dramatic decline in insect population within a nature...