-The New Indian Express   Chennai: Non-governmental organisation Praphanjam conducted a food festival - Chennai Parampariya Unavu Thiruvizha - recently, hoping to draw attention to Organic Farming, which could help to reduce the suicide rate among farmers. With today's farmers in dire need of sustainability, only Organic Farming falls within the accepted definition of sustainable agriculture. But to put Organic Farming into practice, a large number of consumers are required. "Through this festival...

-Down to Earth   People of West Bengal's Sunderbans region are setting up grain banks to safeguard against food crisis Subedan Bibi's mud hut is a few metres from the banks of the Bakchara river, a distributary of the Hugli in Sunderbans region of South 24 Parganas. When the river is in spate she and most others of Goyadham village move to the main market in the nearby block. "Floods and storms destroy...

A new report entitled: The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2014 by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) says that out of the 19 lakh organic producers in the entire world during 2012, nearly 6 lakh (i.e. roughly 32 percent) are from India (see below figure 1 and link). But a grim fact is that while the rest...

-The Hindu     Farmer plans to set up a farm showcasing 250 varieties Mysore: Known to conserve indigenous varieties of rice from different parts of the country, S.R. Srinivasmurthy, paddy cultivator from T. Narsipura in Mysore district, has augmented his rich collection in recent years and plans to set up a demonstration farm this season. The demonstration farm will feature about 250 rice varieties, collected by him over the years. A "farmer by accident", who...

-YourStory.com   Prabhal Mohandas was born and brought up in Kerala with a rich family history in agriculture. He, however, went on to pursue higher education and did his engineering as well as an MBA. He spent a good decade with the likes of HSBC and Reliance and then got the urge to come back to his roots to start an enterprise around agriculture. Belonging to the technology age, Prabhal realized the...