-The New Indian Express   Chennai: Non-governmental organisation Praphanjam conducted a food festival - Chennai Parampariya Unavu Thiruvizha - recently, hoping to draw attention to organic farming, which could help to reduce the suicide rate among farmers. With today's farmers in dire need of sustainability, only organic farming falls within the accepted definition of sustainable agriculture. But to put organic farming into practice, a large number of consumers are required. "Through this festival...

-PTI   London: The temporary ban, proposed by the European Commission, includes mangoes, eggplant, the taro plant, bitter gourd and snake gourd. The 28-member European Union has temporarily banned the import of Alphonso mangoes, the king of fruits, and four vegetables from India from May 1, sparking protests from the Indian community, lawmakers and traders. The recent decision by the grouping's Standing Committee on Plant Health came after 207 consignments of fruits and vegetables...

-The Telegraph   Paddy may not be the climate culprit that the world is making it out to be Agricultural scientist Pratap Bhattacharyya may have found a remarkable piece of evidence that absolves swathes of paddy fields stretching over millions of hectares of a climate crime. On the contrary, he believes that rice is doing its bit for the environment. A study by Bhattacharyya and his colleagues at the Cuttack-based Central Rice Research Institute...

-The Hindu   Chennai: Nature, in its generosity, must have said: "Let a thousand seeds grow on the humble stalk", as far as millets are concerned. These Forgotten Foods, which Navdanya has ceaselessly worked at bringing back to the food basket for the past 25 years, are indeed superstars of our agriculture. Though they need very little pampering, being water prudent and growing in the hardiest terrain, they yield the maximum nutrition per...

-Reuters   The extra irrigated area would cut India's dependence on annual monsoon rains that water crops grown on nearly half of the country's farmlands New Delhi: India plans to expand its farmland under irrigation by at least a tenth in the next three years, potentially boosting grains output by an equal proportion in the world's second-biggest rice and wheat producer, a top government official told Reuters. The extra irrigated area would cut India's...