Poisonous snakebites have killed more than a million Indians in the last two decades, finds a recently published article entitled Trends in snakebite mortality in India from 2000 to 2019 in a nationally representative mortality study. Published in the open access journal elifesciences.org, the research-based study has found that the country accounts for nearly half the total number of annual deaths in the world caused by snakebite envenoming. Who are the...

-Down to Earth Punjab has paid a price for food security. The use of pesticides and fertilisers has resulted in a number of health issues for the state’s population Punjab — known as the ‘Granary of India’ — produces 20 per cent and nine per cent of India’s wheat and rice respectively. At the international level, this represents three per cent of the global production of these crops. The state is responsible...

-The Telegraph Delay in clearing dues affecting Muzaffarnagar farmers as cultivation is their only source of income Lucknow: Sugarcane farmers in Muzaffarnagar have alleged that the eight sugar mills in the district have been delaying payments totalling Rs 1,300 crore, a perennial problem of late clearance of dues that is this time hurting the cultivators even more because of the economic crisis perpetrated by the pandemic. Preparing to protest while alleging that the...

-Down to Earth Instead of putting Punjab farmers at the mercy of big corporates and private players, there is a need to strengthen existing infrastructure The Union government announced three agriculture-related ordinances as part of its novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package — permitting agricultural trade outside the boundaries of market committees, easing regulation and control under the Essential Commodities Act and facilitating contract farming. Out of these, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and...

-TheWire.in Unlike China which supported productivity-enhancing R&D investments, India’s focus has been on politically-driven subsidies that mainly benefit large farmers. We saw the trailer two years ago. TV news visuals of the plight of thousands of rural poor marching to Mumbai shocked the relatively affluent residents of India’s financial capital. The March 2018 Maharashtra farmers’ march and now the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown-triggered migrant exodus has exposed the stark duality of India –  an...