-Down to Earth The use of synthetic chemicals for agriculture was halted completely in 2005 by the Union territory Lakshadweep, after Sikkim, is on its way to become 100 per cent organic. The Union territory’s agriculture department had submitted a proposal to the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, seeking to declare its entire 32 square kilometre geographical land area as organic. The proposal was approved October 26, 2020 after receiving required certifications...
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Rural distress looms: dip in crop prices, remittances; rising Covid cases -Aanchal Magazine, Sunny Verma and Anil Sasi
-The Indian Express While the over 3% agriculture growth in the first quarter factored in strong Rabi procurement, with high-price realisations getting reflected in the output numbers, fresh data from mandis indicate a slide in the prices of the intercrop produce — horticulture, milk and Poultry etc. The rural sector may have held out the only sliver of hope amid the broader collapse in the first-quarter GDP numbers but there are fresh...
More »MGNREGA softens the blow -Sanjeev Singh Bariana
-The Tribune The job guarantee scheme kept the rural sector afloat during the pandemic-induced lockdown. The number of people employed under MGNREGA in Punjab has gone up considerably. AMID the Covid crisis, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has sustained thousands of villagers who had been rendered jobless across Punjab. These also include the youth who returned to villages after they lost their jobs in towns and cities. After the...
More »Policymakers still talk of ‘food security’, it’s time to plan for ‘nutritional self-reliance’ -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express Farmers will need to be supported in perpetuity; they can never become atmanirbhar. The question is how best to support farmers such that India may become nutrition self-reliant Imagine, while constructing a multi-storey building the contractors discover the building foundation has begun to sink. It is scary, but wait. Now, imagine that even though the contractors know this, they simply decide to continue work rather than alter the plans....
More »Agent of change: Motivated by IFS officer, Jharkhand villagers build 700 check-dams -Mukesh Ranjan
-The New Indian Express From strengthening Gram Sabha to shunning alcoholism, IFS officer motivates villagers to transform their lives through ‘shramdaan’, which helped them build 700 check-dams. JHARKHAND: Nothing could have changed Ara and Keram villages under Ormanjhi Block, located about 45 km from Jharkhand capital Ranchi. The people sold forest wood, did menial works and drank the local spirit. The result was only natural: The two villages were economically and socially most backward...
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