-CivilSocietyOnline.com WHEN the Sri Lankan economy collapsed with a sigh recently, prominently sticking out of the debris was a failed attempt to take the island nation into full-scale organic agricultural production. The Rajapaksa government had virtually overnight ordered a switch to organic agriculture to save foreign exchange on the import of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. But going organic, instead of being the solution, became a bigger problem with food crops failing and the...

-DailyPioneer.com Food grain traders protest against tax hike Ranchi: Different trade bodies associated with Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) on Wednesday staged a symbolic protest against the agriculture marketing tax imposed by the State government. The trade organizations associated with Fruits, vegetables, food grains, rice mills, retail traders and others participated in the protest. The trade bodies questioned the imposition of new agriculture tax in the State (Jharkhand) where...

-Hindustan Times Hearing the RTI application of Bhupendra Kumar Pandey, the commission ordered the ‘symbolic punishment’ on Monday. Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission has asked a public information officer (PIO) to feed mid-day meal to 250 school students in Ghazipur as a “symbolic punishment” for delay in replying to an RTI application. Hearing the RTI application of Bhupendra Kumar Pandey, the commission ordered the ‘symbolic punishment’ on Monday. Information commissioner Ajay Kumar...

-The Hindu Improving natural iron absorption from iron-rich grains is a better strategy than chemical iron fortification of cereals Is iron deficiency universal and profound in India? Is it due to dietary iron deficiency? With the Indian vegetarian diet, containing 8.5 mg iron/1,000 Kcal-energy, women who eat adequately (enough energy for a sedentary lifestyle), should have an iron intake of about 15 mg/day, matching their daily iron requirement (15 mg/day). Adult men...

-Financial Express The Met department, in its outlook for this month, has predicted hot and dry conditions for central India, a region that includes Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west and Odisha in the east, and is a ‘core heat zone’ in April. If the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) prediction of a severe heat wave in April comes true, the country’s horticultural crops such as mangoes and lychees will be adversely impacted,...