BINDOL (NORTH DIANJPUR): In these arid, impoverished parts, Bindol has another name - kidney village. The wasted, skeletal men and women you would see slumped under the shade of trees are awaiting death with feeble breaths. This is the kidney sale capital of the state, perhaps of the country. Every second home here has someone who has sold his kidney to escape starvation. Many die within years. Now, the dying men...
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Bid to revive forests in Jammu and Kashmir by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
ZAVOORA, India (AlertNet) – Amid thousands of tree stumps stretching over almost 60 hectares (150 acres) of bare plateau, there are signs of life. Delicate saplings of kail and deodar conifers are growing between other newly planted deciduous trees. The woodland had been cut down illegally by loggers and encroached upon for farming. But forestry officials here in Shopian district, a two-hour drive south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s...
More »Indian echo in Gates thrust by Meghdeep Bhattacharyya
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has criticised UN agencies like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) for not doing enough to fight hunger and poverty. “Countries, food agencies and donors aren’t working together in a focused and co-ordinated way to provide the help small farmers need, when they need it,” Gates told the governing council of the IFAD in...
More »Nitish flays Seeds Bill as anti-farmer
-The Times of India Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today flayed the proposed Seeds Bill, 2011, saying that its provisions were tilted heavily in favour of the multi-national companies and against the interests of the farmers. "There is no guarantee in the proposed Seeds Bill, 2011, that the seeds produced and marketed by the MNCs will be beneficial to the farmers," Kumar said at a function organized to celebrate the 123rd birth...
More »Seeds Of Change by Lola Nayar
Maharashtra sounds clarion call on hybrid crop liability Competition is tough in the seed market, which may explain why marketing gimmicks are often used to woo farmers. It’s tougher still for the farmers to get compensation when the claims fail and they are saddled with a bad or damaged crop. Sometimes the state government steps in to offer compensation or the farmers turn to the consumer court for relief. Typically, of...
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