The indiscriminate use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides over the years has led to deterioration of soil quality and crop productivity in India. According to a study conducted by the central soil water conservation research and training institute (CSWCRTI), Dehra Dun, about 1 millimetre of top soil is lost every year due to erosion. This leads to a total soil loss of 5,334 million tonnes annually, at an average rate...

India has opposed ban on the pesticide at Geneva meet, Forest Minister says India should not have become a ‘spokesman' of the pesticides lobby. Forest Minister Benoy Viswom has criticised the stand taken by India against global ban on Endosulfan at the sixth meeting of Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention at Geneva last week. “India's stand was not right. The general consensus at the meeting was in favour...

The Kisan Swaraj Yatra, a countrywide rally of farmers questioning the corporatisation of rural farms, reached the city on Sunday morningfrom Ralegaon Siddhi after covering 20 states over 71 days. The rally has demanded an explanation on the socio-cultural, environmental and political ramifications of such rampant corporatisation. It has modelled itself after Gandhi’s Dandi March. The march, that began on October 2 at Sabarmati, will end at Rajghat on December 11....

“Punjab has suffered only debt, serious illnesses and polluted and scanty water sources” Appealing to the farmers and policy-makers to not emulate the Punjab model of Green Revolution, some farmers from Punjab said here on Sunday that the revolution had completely ruined the State. “Punjab is now called the cancer capital of India. The Green Revolution has given farmers only three things: debt, serious illnesses and polluted and scanty water sources,”...

A decline in pollinating insects in India is resulting in reduced vegetable yields and could limit people's access to a nutritional diet, a study warns. Indian researchers said there was a "clear indication" that pollinator abundance was linked to productivity. They added that the loss of the natural service could have a long-term impact on the farming sector, which accounts for almost a fifth of the nation's GDP. Globally, pollination is estimated to...