In his fields, Badhia Naval Singh , a farmer tilling 8 bighas of land in the Bagli tehsil in Madhya Pradesh, has been seeing something strange for a while now. Earlier, if he pulled out a tuft of grass, he would see earthworms . "Ab woh dikhna bandh ho gaye hain (they don't show up any longer)," says the 45-yearold . Also, he says, when he ploughed earlier, the soil...

Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, diseases and devastation, was able to save its own life largely because of India’s questionable efforts at global forums. The controversial pesticide has been in news for a long time because of its harmful effects on humans, wild life and the environment. Obviously the $100 million industry is going out of the way to defend the...

Blame the poor enforcement of the Integrated Pest Management policy for the toxins in your salad Here is a scary story about pesticides from an enterprising farmer. Subramaniam Kannaiyan — from Thalavady village in Erode, Tamil Nadu — blogs about his experiences with pesticides with respect to a single vegetable, cabbage. Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land are cultivating cabbages on about 3,000 acres here. According to...

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday submitted the Working Group on Agriculture Production report to Indian Prime Minister in New Delhi. It is to mention that Indian Prime Minster on April 8, 2010 constituted the Working Group on Agriculture Production under the chairmanship of the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal as members to recommend strategies and action plan...

A seminar titled Food Security and Sustainability in India, organized at Amritsar between 7 and 8 November by the GAD Institute of Development Studies, a NGO, at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, brought together government officials, scientists, academicians and NGOs so as to generate discussions and debates surrounding climate change and global warming and their impact on agriculture. The Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change is going to take place between...