-Down to Earth Nasa’s satellite image showed at least 100 such incidents in Punjab in the last 72 hours Nasa satellite images recorded scores of farm fires across Punjab and Haryana in the last seven days, indicating that the stubble burning season has started in the two states. Several red dots, indicating stubble burning activity, were seen in the images, especially over the districts of Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab, and Karnal,...

Almost one in every five suicides in the world is committed by self-poisoning with pesticide, which mostly occur in rural, agricultural areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), states a new publication entitled 'Preventing Suicide: A resource for pesticide registrars and regulators'. Published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the booklet says that the adoption of green revolution technology...

-Livemint.com Public programs like MGNREGA are less successful in raising wages in regions characterized by historical inequality, finds new study When it was launched in 2006, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was envisaged to boost rural economies by providing the rural poor with 100 days of guaranteed public employment and raising rural wages. But its intended benefits may have eluded those who needed them the most, a new...

-IndiaSpend.com/ Land Conflict Watch Barwani, Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): Two middle-aged men struggled to carry an old steel cupboard, which looked like it had never been moved, from a house in south-western Madhya Pradesh in central India. Clothes and kitchenware packed in old sarees were placed outside. The house next door in Nisarpur village was half submerged under the rising waters of the Narmada. The ground floors of most shops in a parallel...

-Down to Earth Another 30% of the county’s land is undergoing degradation. What does this mean for the country where more than 60% peopel depends on agriculture? Every year during the monsoon, Hemant Waman Chowre faces a peculiar situation. On the one hand, he hopes for good rainfall to water his crops but on the other, he is scared, for even a mild shower can destroy his saplings. Chowre is a 35-year-old farmer...