-The Hindu Select farmers to be trained on improved farming technology Madurai (Tamil Nadu): The Department of Agriculture has chosen to promote cultivation of minor millets to beat economic backwardness among the farming community in rain-fed Kalligudi block. The officials have identified 322 farmers and 78 farm hands as beneficiaries under the State Balanced Growth Fund in seven villages of the block. The State Government has allotted Rs. 23 lakh under the fund. "Select...

-The Tribune The community has to pay the cost of environmental degradation if sustainable agricultural practices are not followed. Food can also be produced by in-built provisions for ecological services. For this, sustainability issues have to be addressed with policy support. An ecosystem is a dynamic, complex, functional unit of diverse living organisms, physical environment and humans are its integral part. The wellbeing of mankind depends upon food, water, fibre, medicine, flood...

-Economic and Political Weekly     Sustained and focused efforts have to be made by the Tamil Nadu state government to provide relief and rehabilitation to the drought affected people of the state. S Rajendran (myrajendran@gmail.com) is with the Department of Economics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. Due to the failure of the north-east monsoon in December 2013, Tamil Nadu is witnessing drought like conditions this year, leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to make it mandatory that 60% of work undertaken in a district under the job guarantee scheme- MGNREGA- should be linked to agriculture. The rural development ministry will incorporate the mandatory clause in Schedule-1 of the MGNREGA so that every state has to follow the norms designed to give a fillip to agriculture through labour-intensive work under the job scheme. RD secretary...

-PSainath.org   The adivasi women of Edamalakudi, Kerala's remotest panchayat, have formed a headload workers' group, helped light up their villages with solar power, and practice group farming in wild elephant territory. All are Muthavan tribals. Almost all are members of Kerala's extraordinary anti-poverty and gender justice movement - Kudumbashree. They are also neighbours of Chinnathambi, the keeper of the Wilderness Library. When 60 women in Edamalakudi carried about a hundred solar...