-Economic and Political Weekly Agriculture cannot be revived without a different approach to water, soil, crops and research. For the second year in succession, rainfall in the monsoon season has been less than normal. As many as 302 out of the 640 districts in the country have been declared drought-hit and the impact of the drought is the severest in nine major states of south, central and east India. It is striking...

-The Indian Express If you are a vegetarian in India, the chances of your suffering pesticide exposure may be higher than for those predominantly consuming non-vegetarian foods. Almost a fifth of all foods produced and sold in the country contain Pesticide residues, according to a Union agriculture ministry-sponsored nationwide network project involving 25 participating labs. During 2014-15, as many as 20,618 food samples were collected and analysed under a ‘Monitoring of Pesticide residues...

-The Hindu Business Line The entire tea industry in India faces an uncertain future. And young people don’t want to work in tea gardens anymore After a steady run for nearly a decade, the tea industry is now facing tough times. Both, production of gardens in the organised sector and leaf prices are virtually stagnating. And exports no longer hold out much promise. Between January and July this year, all-India production was 553.21...

-Down to Earth Even as studies point out the use of these pesticides in food commodities, coordination gaps between concerned deparments have not been addressed In a scheme for monitoring Pesticide residues in food commodities, the Ministry of Agriculture has found that 12.5 per cent of samples analysed contained non-approved pesticides. The 2014-15 annual report of the ministry's Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare contains data related to use of pesticides,...

-The Hindu Aims to create awareness on judicious and proper use of pesticides The Government has taken several measures for proper use of pesticides by the farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture has stated in a release that Pesticide residue data generated under the “Monitoring of Pesticide residues at National Level” are shared with State Governments and concerned ministries/organisations to initiate the corrective action for judicious and proper use of pesticides on crops with...