-The Hindu Assistance to be provided to selected villages to set up rooftop solar panels, rainwater harvesting structures and waste management units Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Farmers in 14 villages across the State will soon be equipped with hi- tech and precision farming methods to boost the production of banana and vegetables. The government has accorded administrative sanction for a flagship project mooted by the Agriculture department to establish poly houses and popularise precision farming...

-The Hindu In addition to ailments caused by poverty, salt pan workers across the country suffer from several occupational diseases, including chronic dermatitis, loss of vision and hypothyroidism In Adivasi Colony, a remote hamlet off the road from Vedaranyam to Kodikarai in Tamil Nadu, most of the adults in the 200-odd households work in salt manufacturing. They prepare salt pans manually, irrigate them with saline water which is three times saltier than...

-Economic and Political Weekly The rising prices of two product groups - primary articles and fuel - have been responsible for the build-up in headline inflation between December 2009 and August 2013. The most worrisome aspect is the high inflation in a majority of food articles in the last six years or so despite a favourable domestic food supply situation and low global food prices. Based on the analysis of the...

-The Telegraph Patna: Bihar's honeymoon with double digit growth appears to be headed for a rocky phase with the government today declaring 33 of the state's 38 districts as drought-hit. The agriculture and allied sectors, which contribute around one-fifth (18.91 per cent) of Bihar's gross state domestic product (GSDP), are staring at a lower growth rate for the second consecutive year. The overall growth rate of the state was a little...

-FAO Direct economic costs of $750 billion annually - Better policies required, and "success stories" need to be scaled up and replicated Rome: The waste of a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year is not only causing major economic losses but also wreaking significant harm on the natural resources that humanity relies upon to feed itself, says a new FAO report. Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources is the first...