-ANI Chairman Standing Committee of Parliament on Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Hukmdev Narayan Yadav called for concerted efforts to forge an R and D-led strategy to save the loss of crops due to pests, weeds and diseases. An estimated 15-25 percent of potential crop production is lost due this menace at a time when India needs not only to raise production but also ensure food security and nutrition for its growing consumption...

-Livemint.com How women in a remote Nagaland village are bringing about transformation rooted in traditional Naga practices Inside a small thatched hut, smoke from the wood fire danced with the sun rays beaming through gaps in the roof. We huddled around the fire, brewed tea and wordlessly consumed the packed breakfast of bread, jam and boiled eggs. An intense cicada cacophony resonated across the hillside; the incessant shrill buzz battering our eardrums...

-TheWire.in The shift from the MDGs to Sustainable Development goals is also a shift from tracking aggregates to tracking more disaggregated indicators, and India urgently needs a strategy to overcome data limitations. India may be one of the very few countries where key central ministries disagree on whether crucial Millennium Development Goals (MDG) will be achieved or not. MDG 5, whose target was reduction of maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters...

-The Hindu Business Line Points out that many will starve and lose their livelihood without govt support New Delhi: Citing the vulnerability of its small-scale fishing fleet and the need to ensure food security, India has demanded special and differential treatment in fishery subsidy disciplines being negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that support to small and marginal fishermen gets exempted. In a recent meeting in Geneva on laying ground rules...

-TheWire.in A ‘data revolution’ is needed in terms of making disaggregated data available if India is to achieve – or get anywhere near – the ambitious Sustainable Development goals related to health and nutrition. Earlier this year, around two hundred countries came together and agreed in principle on a global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development goals (SDG). The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDG framework...