The farmers who have decided to start bio-farming and other farmers who prefer to adopt local methods to reduce cost of farming should start preparations to make bio-pesticides. Soyabean and other main important crops of Kharif crops are attacked by several types of insects. Since the number of insects is very large, they should be controlled to save the crops. The bio-pesticides prepared to destroy these insects are made mainly...

AS CONCERN for the ecosystem runs high all across the world, a small, mountainous state in India’s northeast — Sikkim, has taken a step ahead and declared to go completely organic by the year 2015. What this means is the total phasing out of chemical inputs from agriculture. Sikkim has long been an ecologically conscious state with initiatives such as a comprehensive ban on plastic, bio-medical and chemical waste in...

The recent spike in world food prices has further widened the gap between the developed and the developing economies. While, over 70 per cent of the world's population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world's resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as...

Since the advent of the Green Revolution popularised use of excessive irrigation and fertilisers in India in the 1960s, biodynamic farming, an advanced form of organic farming, had largely faded into oblivion. Biodynamic farming, a return to natural farming free from the use of pesticides and chemicals, is readying for a revival in Punjab, the hub of the Green Revolution in the country. While organic farming is basically a holistic management...

With the continuous high prices of pulses a major worry, the Centre has reoriented its strategy from this kharif season, with farmers being given incentives to go for mechanisation through custom hiring of tractors, ridge and furrow planters, and Rotavators (rotary tillers). Farmers are also being encouraged to take up inter-cropping, adoption of new technologies, integrated nutrient management, better seeds, and drip and sprinkler irrigation. Farmers in 60,000 identified villages in major...