-The Hindu Experts say people can keep diseases away if they consume millets Guntur (Andhra Pradesh): The two-day Millet Festival - 2014, aimed at popularising consuming low fat and high fibre millet began at Gunta Grounds here on Saturday. The festival is being held for the first time in districts outside Hyderabad in a bid to promote consumption of millet. Minister for Agriculture Kanna Lakshminarayana, Commissioner of Agriculture K. Madhusudhan Rao and College...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-Deccan Herald The National Biodiversity Authority has recognised 30 villages in Zaheerabad of Medak district of Andhra Pradesh that grow traditional and fast-disappearing millets as Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Site (ABHS). The Andhra Pradesh State Biodiversity Board (APSBB), which finally gave green signal for the rare recognition, has sent its recommendation to the National Biodiversity Board, which has approved the proposal making these villages to become first villages in India...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The state will slash the proposed number of security camps at Saranda, indicating a welcome wane in Maoist presence and influence in Asia's largest sal reserve, but the health of the showpiece action plan for 55 forest villages is open to question two years after its launch. Around the start of the Rs 249-crore Saranda Action Plan in December 2011, soon renamed to Saranda Development Plan, 24 security camps...

-National Academy of Agricultural Sciences After almost 67 years of Independence, malnutrition continues to plague India. Even while vast segments of resource-poor people suffer from undernutrition, particularly micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger), there is a growing incidence of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc. Both the ends of this grim spectrum are at least partly due to changing food habits, loss of millets from the diet being one...