-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...
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Southern states had a higher proportion of indebted farm households in 2019, shows NSO survey
The Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round), which was released recently, informs one about farm households' income in the crop year 2018-19 and indebtedness in 2019 (as on the date of survey), among other things. Prior to the recent report, Land and Livestock Holding Surveys (LHS) and Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households used to be...
More »Extreme weather events in India made women, children more vulnerable to modern slavery, flags report -Kiran Pandey
-Down to Earth Cyclones in India, particularly in the Sundarbans, made locals vulnerable to traffickers and drove them into forced labour, the report flagged Climate change-induced extreme weather events put women, children and minorities at risk of modern slavery and human trafficking. The phenomenon is on the rise in India, among other countries, warned the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Anti-Slavery International in a recent report. Modern slavery — including...
More »The Sundarbans: India must protect the world’s largest delta from a dystopian future, and now -Mukut Biswas
-Down to Earth We must get out of ‘beyond disaster response’ mode in the Sundarbans and take urgent action to save it The world seems to pay attention to the Sundarbans only when catastrophe hits. In the aftermath of both supercyclones Amphan and Yaas that ravaged the Sundarbans, non-profits, celebrities, clubs and citizens had organised several crowd funding initiatives to get the financial support to distribute relief materials to the cyclone victims. It...
More »Only a sixth of India’s reservoirs full: Central Water Commission -Shagun Kapil
-Down to Earth Reservoirs in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Madhya Pradesh have less than normal storage At least 23 out of 130 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission (CWC) were full, according to a bulletin released September 16, 2021 evening. All four reservoirs in Telangana monitored by CWC were full to their capacity as of September 16. Eight out of 25 dams in Maharashtra; three each in Karnataka, Jharkhand...
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