-The Tribune Minimising paddy straw burning needs multi-pronged and eco-friendly approaches. There is no single solution to manage its massive quantities. All on-field and off-field technologies have limitations. Combined, they would improve soil health, grain production and fertiliser-use efficiency, reduce pollution, and ensure long-term agriculture sustainability. Concerted efforts are needed to make eco-friendly techniques economically viable, especially for small farmers. WITH mechanised farming and assured irrigation, farmers of northwest India raise 2-3...
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UP Polls: Farmers Most Deprived of MSP in Double Engine State -Subodh Varma
-Newsclick.in Just 15% of wheat and 32% of rice was procured by the government at MSP rates. The rest was sold below MSP to traders. Uttar Pradesh (UP) produced 58.32 million tonnes of food grains in 2020-21, the highest among all states. It was nearly 19% or one-fifth of the country's production. Foodgrains include wheat and rice, the two major crops, and various coarse cereals and pulses. UP was the country’s leading...
More »Hunger Amidst Plenty—Tragedy Continues 75 Years After Independence -Subodh Varma
-Newsclick.in As India celebrates its 75th Independence Day, there is a record harvest of foodgrains; but why are so many people hungry? India has reaped an all-time high food grain harvest for 2020-21 of nearly 309 million tonnes (MT), or nearly 31 crore tonnes, according to latest estimates by the agriculture ministry. This was propelled by record harvests of wheat (109.5 MT), rice (122.3 MT), nutri/coarse cereals (51.2 MT) and pulses (25.7...
More »Making Ethanol from Rice Hurts India’s Poor -Soma Marla
-Newsclick.in Government must explore non-conventional resources to achieve energy security. Its current policy to blend ethanol and biodiesel helps the biofuel industry at the cost of food security. In a recent press conference, the Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said that in 2020-21 the Centre allocated about 78,000 tonnes of rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stocks to distilleries to produce ethanol. The distilleries got rice at a subsidised Rs.20...
More »Organic production and consumption is on the rise in Rajasthan, finds CUTS International project report
-Press release by CUTS International dated 5th July, 2021 In a study done by CUTS International under its 4-years old project -- ProOrganic, almost 97.4 percent of consumers were found to be aware of the fact that chemical input-based food products are harmful for health compared to 86 percent of the same set of consumers way back in 2017. Similarly, the percentage of farmers doing organic farming has gone up to...
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