-Livemint.com Odisha is a front-runner in women’s land ownership, much of it owing to government policies from the 1980s. But has ownership led to empowerment? Surrounded by sun-drenched paddy fields interspersed with jackfruit and banana trees, Sanakusupadu is a hamlet in Odisha’s tribal-dominated district of Rayagada. Here, almost every married woman owns land. No matter how small the holding, land documents of the 62 households in this village bear the names of the...

-TheWire.in The national average of infants in the age group six to 23 months who receive an adequate diet is a shocking 9.6%. New Delhi: The image of a woman breastfeeding on the cover of a popular Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi was too much for some to bear. A case was even filed in Kerala high court over it. However, the court recently came out in support of the publication, refusing to...

-OdishaTV.in Meet Daitari Nayak, a 70 year old farmer who single-handedly carved out a three kilometer canal from the Gonasika mountains so that the water stream could reach down and irrigate the parched fields and settlements below. The "canal man" as people fondly call him, patiently cut the steep hillsides and cleared the rocks for more than four years to make the stream slowly snake down. Bhubaneswar: The refreshing greens in more...

-The Indian Express We have, indeed, entered a regime of “permanent surpluses” in most crops — a reality our policymakers are unable to grasp, stuck as they are in the era of the Essential Commodities Act. If there is one thing that has changed in Indian agriculture in recent times, it is supply response — the ability of farmers to increase production when prices go up. Traditionally, the supply curve in most...

-GoIMonitor.com The villagers getting management rights under the Forest Rights Act can inspire others “First came the forest, followed by the people, and then the government. Does this chronology allow the newest entrant in the scheme to determine the relationship between the two older entities? In other words, does the new regime of community forest resource bequeath rights or is it merely a recognition of unalienable rights already vested in the communities living...