-Livemint.com India has slid down the Global Hunger Index (GHI) this year, falling behind its South Asian neighbours to rank 101 out of 116 countries. The government has dismissed the report’s ‘unscientific’ methodology. Mint explains the numbers: * What’s the controversy surrounding GHI? The hunger index ranks countries on four indicators: the share of undernourished population, stunting and wasting among children, and child mortality. India’s overall score has improved since 2012, the last year...
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How pulses can regain their lost glory in India -Shagun Kapil, Vivek Mishra, Raju Sajwan, Anil Ashwani Sharma and Bhagirath
-Down to Earth Ensuring that pulses sell at the minimum support price and distributing them under the public distribution system can help them find favour with farmers again When India went into its first lockdown in 2020, the government announced Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), under which over 800 million people were to be provided rice, wheat, and pulses, in addition to the ration provided under the public distribution system...
More »Sri Lanka’s organic farming crisis: Learning from failures -Gurudas Nulkar
-Down to Earth Sri Lanka has found itself in an economic crisis in pursuit of producing 100% organic food ‘Lankan food crisis shows perils of organic farming’. This was the headline of a column by Indian economist Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar column published in a national daily recently. Aiyar’s article analysed the Sri Lankan food crisis, which has been triggered by the President’s recent decision to shift from chemical to organic farming. While the...
More »Rajapaksa’s eco-extremism spells doom for Sri Lankan agriculture and rural livelihoods -R Ramakumar
-Foundation of Agrarian Studies An influential section of Sri Lankan agricultural economists and scientists has deplored the recent course change in the country’s agricultural policy made by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. The decision by the government to ban the use and import of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in pursuit of a “100 per cent organic food producer” status for Sri Lanka has already had disastrous consequences for the economy of the...
More »Need for more weather safety awareness and lightning warning tools to save human lives
Media reports indicate that at the start of the southwest monsoon season, lightning strikes caused the death of over 70 people in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on a single day i.e. 11th July, 2021. Prior to those separate events related to human casualty caused by thunderbolts, eighteen elephants were found dead on a hilltop at Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest situated in Assam's Nagaon district on...
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