Environmental groups have questioned assertions by sections of scientists and the biotechnology industry that genetically-modified (GM) food crops could play a crucial role in ensuring food security. More than 180 GM plants have so far been field tested in several countries, but few have progressed to the stage where commercial seed is available to farmers, the non-government environmental network called Friends of the Earth (FoE) has said. “GM crops are...

India, the world’s second most populous country, announced today that it is coming on board the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) campaign to cover the world with billions of trees, pushing the total number planted so far to more than 10 billion since the movement started in 2006. The South Asian nation is one of the fastest-growing economies in the region and is among the world’s largest consumers of wood products....

The Central Statistical Organisation estimate of overall GDP being likely to grow at 7.2 per cent this year has brought back the confidence of the industry and policymakers that the economy has truly turned the corner. But the growth of the farm sector is almost flat (-0.2 per cent), though this too is a pleasant surprise given that it was exposed to the worst drought since 1972. The real worry...

Statistical poverty lines should not become real-life eligibility criteria for food entitlements.  Nothing is easier than to recognise a poor person when you see him or her. Yet the task of identifying and counting the poor seems to elude the country's best experts. Take for instance the “headcount” of rural poverty — the proportion of the rural population below the poverty line. At least four alternative figures are available: 28...

With seven months of drought each year, Indian farmers are rarely far from disaster. Could the answer be as simple as a piece of plastic tubing? In Maharashtra, western India, the temperature is soaring into the forties. The monsoon is over and there are months of relentless baking sunshine ahead. The fertile lands are turning into kilometre after kilometre of scorched brown earth. Farming has become almost impossibly difficult. Solitary figures...