Farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district are taking to poultry business as the agriculture sector has suffered losses. Owing to increasing demand and the profit margins attached to it, growers have taken up poultry farming. To meet the shortage of poultry products in the domestic and international markets ahead of Christmas and New Year, many farmers have turned to rearing chickens. The export of poultry products has also increased by 49 percent. Om Yadav,...

Orissa government has imposed a seven-month ban on fishing for the nesting and breeding season of Olive Ridley turtles. This will affect the livelihood of at least three lakh fishermen across the state. Fish eaters will have to pay more for sea fishes or will have to satisfy themselves with sweet water fishes. The ban will be in force along 120 km sea coast in six districts of Balasore, Bhadrak,...

The new rabi grain pricing policy seems to have been influenced more by macro-concerns about food inflation management rather than any considerations relating to food production planning. The marginal increase in minimum support prices (MSPs) of most rabi crops, barring pulses, is understandable given the government’s focus on inflation reduction and the fact that this marginal increase comes on top of earlier hikes of a decent magnitude. Moreover, there are...

The disclosure by the Centre for Science and Environment that 11 of the 12 leading brands of honey sold in India contain high levels of harmful antibiotics should make us acknowledge our failure to evolve and enforce environmental and health standards. Similar disclosures were made about pesticides in soft drinks and coliform bacteria in 'safe' bottled water. More distressing is the documentation since the 1980s of high content of pesticides...

Swaths of the world inhabit a modern dark age, with lack of electricity and modern cooking facilities condemning billions to deep poverty, the top UN energy body said Tuesday. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 20 percent of the global population, or 1.4 billion people, lack access to electricity, while about 40 percent rely on the likes of wood stoves for cooking. "This is shameful and unacceptable," the IEA said...