-Down to Earth A village in outer Delhi is sinking in wastewater overflowing from the Najafgarh drain. That’s because of construction over a wetland, which has blocked the natural water channels. Extreme rainfall has worsened the crisis If you wished to enter Raota village, on the Delhi-Haryana border in the national capital’s southwest district, you would have to wade through knee-deep wastewater. Roads there resembled a sewer; people used boats to commute. Wastewater...

-The Indian Express Nearly half a century later, millet is making a comeback, thanks to the intervention of the local administration and NGOs. Today, Hanhaga is among 1990 farmers across 163 villages in Keonjhar who have taken up the cultivation of millet. Keonjhar: In the 1960s and ’70s, with the advent of the green revolution, the Indian taste for cereal tilted towards wheat and Rice. This was the time when Rumbi Hanhaga (56),...

In his Mann ki Baat speech delivered on 30th August, 2020, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said that the month of September 2020 will be observed as Nutrition Month (POSHAN Maah) in the entire nation. In his address to the nation on that day, he highlighted that for children to be well-nourished, the mother should receive proper and adequate nutrition. In this context, it is important to discuss the 11 different...

-The Indian Express The Super Cyclone Amphan had left a trail of destruction in South 24 Parganas district where it broke embankments causing saline water to seep into agricultural fields making irreversible changes to the soil texture. Enter the endemic Pokkali Rice from Kerala famed for its remarkable resistance to saltwater. Kochi: An interesting experiment is underway in the Rice fields near Sunderbans of West Bengal to find out if a certain...

-The Indian Express Husk, bran, straw, stover, skin, molasses and bagasse are some of the agro-waste products obtained from Rice, wheat, maize, millet and sugarcane. Farmers usually burn these waste products after harvest, often leading to massive air pollution as experienced in Delhi during winters. Pune: A new study has found that coating jowar, bajra, wheat and maize seeds with organic mixture derived from sugarcane residue increases the yield of these cereals. City-based...