-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Hindu Demand is high in semi-urban areas; hay supplements the animal feed TIRUCHI: There has been a scramble for purchasing hay for cattle among livestock owners in the district. The demand for hay has been on the rise, particularly in semi-urban areas, where the cattle owners have to largely rely on the hay available in nearby villages. No sooner a paddy field is harvested cattle owners camp in the area. A case in...

-The Hindu Bangalore is doing its bit for the desi cow as Harshini Vakkalanka discovers Bangalore: Desi cow ghee in earthen pots, fresh butter, sweetened hung curd, kalakand, basundi, rasamalai and rasagolla, kulfi, jamun rabadi, ladoo malai or motichoor ladoo; these may seem like the bane of every health-freak in the country not to mention diabetics but that's just the point. These desi cow milk sweets, made at Swarg Foods, a Bangalore-based organisation...

-The Alternative Parveen Kumar works in the farms of Uddhampur District, Jammu & Kashmir, where the Government has posted him on a project that allots about 100 to 200 hectares of land each to grow and train farmers in organic cultivation. Parveen grows wheat, maize and pulses in the 100 hectares that he is in-charge of. Crops are chosen by the government after analysing the market demand in the area. Thus,...

-The Week A revolutionary farming system is working wonders in Nalanda district Nalanda: If not for an agricultural technique known as SRI (system of rice intensification), Sumant Kumar of Darveshpura in Bihar's Nalanda district would have remained a faceless farmer. In 2012, with the help of the state agriculture department, he tried out SRI on an acre that usually bore only modest yields. It worked, and Sumant got a bumper harvest. An...