-The Hindu Is it possible to get a good yield without using chemical fertilizers? Will a shift to organic affect our food security? Can we manage insect pests without using pesticides? Will organic cultivation still be profitable for farmers? These are some of the often asked questions by farmers when problems of modern agriculture are being discussed. Enabavi, a small village in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh promises to answer all these. Situated off...

-The Hindu MADURAI: Muthumari's day starts at 4 a.m. She milks her cows in the cowshed behind the house and keeps cans of milk ready to be collected by a pickup van from a private dairy company. Then she turns to her household chores and sends her children off to school. Packing the day's food for herself, she proceeds towards the fields in her village at Udayanpatti. She is not just a...

-The Hindu blog The state that pioneered the successful noon-meal scheme may just have cooked up the next big idea. In his latest book, 'An Uncertain Glory - India and its contradictions', economist-philosopher and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has devoted almost ten pages to sing Tamil Nadu's praise for its efficient delivery of public services. "Tamil Nadu's capacity for innovation and creative thinking in matters of public administration is an important example for...

-Frontline The midday meal scheme is a grand idea in a flawed school system. "THEY played here, studied here and got buried here!" (Yahin khela, yahin padha aur yahin ho gaya dafan). With these emphatic words, grieving parents buried the bodies of two children within the compound of the Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School of Masharakh block in Saran district of Bihar. This sentiment was expressed with great dignity even in the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A community-managed meal scheme that has shown encouraging results in improving the nutrition level of pregnant women and lactating mothers in Andhra Pradesh may be replicated across the country. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh told The Telegraph that Andhra’s Nutrition cum Day Care Centre (NDCC) scheme was being studied and could be replicated in rural areas under the Centre’s Aajeevika scheme. “The NDCC scheme is being implemented by self-help...