-The Hindu Journalist-author Meena Menon on the crisis of cotton and why India needs to go back to desi varieties There’s a pithy summing up of Bt Cotton in Meena Menon’s 2018 article ‘A lost cotton heritage’. “Bt cotton is like Fair and Lovely,” Kamal Kishore Dhiran, an organic cotton Farmer, tells the journalist and author. “Does it really change you or make you fair? Similarly Bt cotton doesn’t address the main...

-The Hindu The solution lies in better schemes that ensure universal coverage for small, marginal and medium-sized Farmers To do or not to do? According to reports, the Central government is discussing a scheme to waive outstanding farm loans in the aftermath of widespread Farmers’ protests between March and December 2018 . Till now, at least 11 States have announced schemes to waive outstanding farm loans: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil...

-The Hindu Business Line It is vital to cover the important and vulnerable section of tenant Farmers with credit and insurance Tenant Farmers rarely get bank credit. They don’t get any subsidies. Money lenders thrive on them because their loans cannot be waived. They also account for 80 per cent of Farmers’ suicides in the country. With Farmers taking to the streets to highlight their issues these problems should be addressed. State level...

-Newsclick.in The crisis of falling onion prices is killing Farmers in Maharashtra. The highest onion growing district, Nasik, has witnessed 18 Farmers suicides within the first 20 days of 2019. Last week the photo of a Farmer lying dead on the onion crop in his farm went viral on social media in Maharashtra, bringing the already deepening crisis of onion price into headlines again. Reactions started pouring in from all corners. The...

-Mongabay.com * A recent first of its kind study provides the first scientific targets for a healthy diet from a sustainable food production system that operates within planetary boundaries for food. * Compared with current diets, global adoption of the new recommendations by 2050 will require global consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar to decrease by more than 50 percent, while consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes must...