Dr U Jaikumaran is breathless with excitement over the phone. “The next five days will be hectic and crucial in our war against hunger. We have to transplant rice on 300 acres in just five days.” Dr Jaikumaran, a professor at the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU), has been building a Food Security Army (FSA) – men and women in green uniforms organised into nine regiments and 24 battalions – who are...

A United Nations report titled The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples says the indigenous people and tribes worldwide are facing extinction and exploitation due to threats of displacement and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources. It takes note of the displacement of thousands of families of the Santhal Adivasis in the Indian State of Jharkhand as a result of extraction of minerals, without proper compensation or economic security. The...

Under fire for rising prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked state governments to tackle shortages of essential supplies while promising all possible assistance from the Centre. “It will never be possible to insulate ourselves from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply. The State Governments must forge appropriate strategies to bolster food production and tackle shortages of essential supplies”, he said. Addressing the first annual conference of...

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs.1.15 crore from its Farmers Technology Transfer Fund to the National Agro Foundation (NAF), NABARD’s Managing Director K.G. Karmakar announced on Saturday. Speaking at a function in Illedu village, Kancheepuram, to observe the birth centenary of the former statesman, C. Subramanian, he said the funds had been sanctioned to the NAF to help farmers access new technologies. NABARD was interested...

Are the world and human society in general ready and willing to take action on critical issues that require a major change in the manner in which we produce and consume goods and services?  The science of climate change is now well established. This is the result of painstaking work of over two decades carried out by thousands of scientists drawn from across the globe to assess every aspect of...