-The Times of India MADURAI: Rodentologists suggested farmers use eco-friendly methods to remove rats from the fields, instead of relying on harmful pesticides easily available in the market. Things like bow traps, snap traps, box and cage-type traps effectively entrap and kill rodents. Chemical rodenticides and other pesticides, on the other hand, cause harm to the plants and create nuisance for the farmers. Bow traps are usually placed in the field without any bait inside. Around...

-The Hindu Business Line Agriculture development and food security form the foundation of manufacturing growth. Modi must realise this Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation ‘Make in India’ would make perfect sense till we realise that by ‘making’ he means manufacturing. But could it be that his focus on manufacturing may come a cropper if we do not ensure that agriculture is placed permanently on a sound footing? The history of the great...

-The Financial Express Smart irrigation management steps, including harnessing social sector schemes for irrigation works, did the trick The spate of recent farmer suicides has once again drawn the country’s attention to the deepening agrarian crisis. Media is abuzz with opinions and expert advice on how to provide succour to the farming community. Oft-repeated among these is the demand to increase public investment in irrigation. However, we need to remember that, since 1990, public...

-The Times of India Blog India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act has caught the imagination of people in this country, while being appreciated across the world. A great change has come in India this decade in the power equation between the sovereign citizens of the country and those in power. This change is just beginning and if we can sustain and strengthen it, our defective elective democracy could metamorphose, within the...

-The Times of India YAVATMAL: The first thing that strikes you about Dahegaon village is its run-down and abandoned bullock-carts. They can be found lying outside most huts, with their paint peeling off, almost frozen in time. The animals which used to operate the carts are no longer there. Nearly half the village of 5,000 people sold has off its bullocks over the last few months, says sarpanch S M Balki. The...