-Down to Earth To reduce the consumption of water and maximise agricultural productivity in the country, the government is trying to introduce different innovations The gap between irrigation potential created, through major and minor projects, and the actual usage is increasing and affecting the country’s agricultural productivity, according to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the premier agricultural education and research body under the Union Ministry of Agriculture. "The key challenge facing...

-TheWire.in Instead, the Centre is willing to supply rice at the minimum support price of Rs 26 per kg. New Delhi: The Central government has rejected the Kerala government’s request for a supply of free rice for the victims of floods and heavy rainfall, according to a report in Mathrubhumi. The report also stated that the Centre refused to consider the request to provide rice at Rs 3 per kg under the National...

-PTI India will restore 50 lakh hectare of its degraded land by 2030, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday. Speaking ahead of the upcoming global conference on land desertification, the minister said 29 per cent land of India’s total geographical area is degraded which has to be restored and will be the agenda of the the summit. India is hosting the Conference of Parties (COP) 14 of the United...

-The Hindu The Western Ghats panel’s suggestions stressed the need to strengthen grass-roots governance In 2018, many people thought that the floods and landslides in Kerala that caused huge financial losses and manifold human tragedies marked a once-in-a-century calamity, and that normalcy will return soon and we can merrily return to business as usual. Further, the probability of two such back-to-back events was only 1 in 10,000. Hence, in 2019, a repeat...

-Hindustan Times The nature-development equilibrium is broken, leading to climate disasters. At least 100 people have died in floods in three states in peninsular India — Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra — in August due to monsoon floods. There are several reasons, as reported in a series of articles in Hindustan Times, for the havoc and deaths, such as changes in land-use patterns, excessive quarrying and unscientific plantations (Kerala), poor management of dams...