-Deccan Herald India stares at an agriculture loss worth Rs 42,000 crore ($7 billion) by 2030, due to the dangerous consequences of climate change, says the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its latest report. The loss will mostly be on account of a sharp drop in wheat productivity because of the heat stress in the Indo-Gangetic plains, which produce almost 90 million tonnes of wheat annually. Ranging from Punjab and...

-PTI Washington: One third of the world may be at increased risk of drought by 2100 as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil, a new study has warned. Increasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone, researchers said. Much of concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections, but higher...

-The Hindu Kerala severely threatened by climate change, says State Action Plan on Climate Change Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki districts are climate change hotspots in Kerala, with a high degree of vulnerability to natural hazards like flood and drought and impact on biodiversity and human life. The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) has classified Alappuzha and Palakkad as the most vulnerable districts. Palakkad is listed as very highly...

-The Hindu THRISSUR (Kerala): The only way to have poison-free vegetables is to cultivate them in the backyards of homes, Thrissur Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath has said. Promoting homestead vegetable cultivation was the responsibility of every person in the State, he added. After visiting ‘Agrifiesta 2014', an agricultural exhibition, the Archbishop said the technologies, machinery and implements developed by research institutions should reach farmers. The exhibition has been organised by the Kerala...

-The Hindu     Nearly three years after the government began experimenting with Aadhaar-based payments in Jharkhand, it has not been able to start disbursing payments to beneficiaries at their doorstep Jharkhand was one of five pilot States chosen for an Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS). Beginning with MahATMa Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) payments in select blocks in four districts in 2012, AEPS added pension and scholarship schemes and the Janani Suraksha...