-FirstPost.com One of the fears that has been raised in the aftermath of the government promulgating an ordinance to amend the Land Acquisition Act is that land will be taken away for other purposes and given that, the amount of land used for farming will come down dramatically. This is a very specious argument that is being made. Data from World Bank shows that around 60.3 percent of India's land area is...

-The Guardian An Indian student with a farming background finds a green alternative to burning tons of rice husks and straw by using the waste as housebuilding material When Bisman Deu saw her family burning mounds of rice waste at their farm in southern India, she was convinced the material could be put to better use. The Delhi student, 16, came up with the idea of recycling the unwanted rice husks and...

-The Hindu It will need a caring partnership between the Dongria Kondh, civil society organisations and the government to figure out how to navigate the very difficult terrain the tribals face Till last week, I'd never visited Niyamgiri, scene of the iconic fight between the Dongria Kondh tribal group and Vedanta, a powerful multinational corporation bent on mining in the area. So why have I titled this ‘revisiting Niyamgiri'? Partly because I've...

-The Asian Age There was a news report not so long ago that ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), an international organisation and part of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) consortium, had entered into an agreement with Gubba Cold Storage Ltd. to set up a private seed bank, the first of its kind in India. No details were available of the terms and conditions under...

-FirstPost.com Uncertainty over the supply of subsidised foodgrain to over 19 lakh families in Assam whose livelihoods are linked to work in the tea gardens is threatening to not only spark dissent among workers but has got the industry leaders worried. To understand the impact, consider the case of Deepak Daori and Monica Daori - both workers at Mokalbari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district. "We are worried that the our monthly ration might...