-The Hindu Taking note of the practices being followed by Krishnaveni, many have started cultivating multiple crops Medak District (Andhra Pradesh): B. Krishnaveni is in her early 50s. She is a resourceful farmer who never lets her two-acre land go vacant. Besides practising ‘Srivari' cultivation, she also grows vegetables. Not only that, she has stopped using ‘masala' (fertilizers) since the past few years and adopted the non-pesticide management (NPM) practice. "We came to...

-The Hindu Puducherry (Tamil Nadu): S. Janaki, a farmer, laughs when she says she is unsure of what to do with the extra time that she now has. "Earlier, I used to have back problems because of the tiring labour involved in paddy cultivation. Now, I find working in the field much easier and that it involves lesser time," she adds. Janaki is among a group of 15 farmers in Vinayagampet village...

-The Hindu Agroforestry promotes productive cropping environments, prevents deforestation, protects watersheds and enables agricultural land to withstand extreme weather events Growing trees on farms is a triple-win strategy for combating simultaneously the challenges of increasing food production, mitigating greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change. It is an instrument of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), catapulted to centre-stage by President Obama's launch of the Global Alliance for CSA at the World Climate Summit on...

-Tehelka.com Cleanliness of Indian cities cannot be ensured without job security, safety gear and competitive wages for sanitary workers. In a unique address to the nation on 2 October - Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary - Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his commitment to devote 100 hours every year to sweeping the floor, picking up the waste and dusting his windows. He also urged everybody to do the same so that Indian cities...

-The Hindu Average size of landholding has shrunk to 0.80 hectares during 2010-11 Chennai: Land available for farming in Tamil Nadu is going down year by year. There seems no end to fragmentation. According to the latest report of the Department of Evaluation and Applied Research (DEAR) on the State's economic appraisal for the period from 2011-12 to 2013-14, the average size of landholding has shrunk from 1.45 hectares during 1970-71 to 0.80...