-The Times of India PUNE: A city-based researcher has developed an eco-friendly toilet which can convert dry human faeces into humus (organic matter) and utilize urine for vermicomposting in an odourless, pollution-free manner. "The system does not require extra water or an expensive drainage system. It will especially help green-zones, parks and agri-rich areas where water is scarce," said Mohan Ketkar, who has conceptualized and developed the eco-friendly toilet. Ketkar worked for the...

-The Financial Express   Prime minister Narendra Modi has done well to launch a soil health card scheme, from Suratgarh in Rajasthan, which is slated to cover 14 crore farmers in the next three years. Soil health cards are an important component of agriculture reform since they help impress upon the farmer the damage done to the soil by excess use of the heavily-subsidised urea in comparison with other fertilisers. While the...

-The Indian Express ONE of the late R.K. Laxman's best cartoons from the mid-1960's portrays a smiling food minister looking out of a window at a heavy monsoon downpour saying, "This year we can tell the Americans to go to hell." Fifty years ago, a good monsoon meant that that year, India was not dependent on food aid and wouldn't have to go hat in hand to the Americans for food...

-The Indian Express After petrol and diesel, the Narendra Modi government is looking next to deregulate urea. In the works is a three-year plan to decontrol the maximum retail price (MRP) of this fertiliser - currently fixed at Rs 5,360 a tonne or Rs 268 per 50-kg bag - alongside permitting duty-free imports sans any canalisation or restrictions, and credit the subsidy directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Urea imports now...

-The Indian Express In an article in these columns (‘A fertile mess', IE, December 11), Ashok Gulati says India has landed its fertiliser industry in a mess because of rising subsidies, lagging investment, unbalanced use of fertilisers and diversion of urea for other uses, among other things. He blames it all on administered pricing and subsidy costs, and advocates the increase of urea prices or cash transfer of the fertiliser subsidy...