-Outlook India Women farmers in Himachal Pradesh are pioneering new all-natural farming techniques under the state government's 'Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)' drive. 50-year-old Satya Devi practised her traditional farm operations using chemicals, sprays, fertilizers and pesticides. But despite using the best marketing practices. She wasn’t able to make much money or save due to high farm input costs. In 2018, Satya Devi switched over to Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)—a drive launched...

The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...

-Down to Earth  The past three decades have seen stagnation in acreage, production and productivity of pulses across the country due to a bevy of reasons that include availability of more profitable crops The primary reason behind India’s domestic shortage in pulses is stagnation of production over the past five decades. Overcoming the Pulses Crisis, a 2010 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry, states the production of pulses grew only by...

-The Hindu Over 53,000 people lose connectivity with nearby towns; paddy crop damaged in E. Godavari SRIKAKULAM/ KAKINADA: With heavy inflows from catchment areas following incessant rains, many rivers, including Vamsadhara, Suvarnamukhi, Nagavali and others have been in spate since Tuesday. It has led to heavy flooding in many mandals, including Palakonda, Burja, Amadalavalasa, Srikakulam and others. Around 48,500 cusecs of water has been released from Narayanpur Anicut built across Nagavali river in...

-PTI/ The New Indian Express These special traits crop varieties also include those that address the anti-nutritional factors found in some crops that adversely affect human and animal health. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched 35 crop varieties with special traits -- developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) -- to address the twin challenges of climate change and malnutrition. The new crop varieties were dedicated to the...