-Down to Earth Bathua is in demand for its nutrition and taste. Improved varieties of the weed can make it popular among farmers Come winters, and vegetable markets in Delhi are flooded with varieties of leafy greens. Among these vegetables is one hitherto unwanted weed, Foraged from wheat fields. Commonly known as bathua in Hindi, cheel bhaji in Gujarati, paruppu keerai in Tamil, chandanbethu in Bengali and vastuccira in Malayalam, this weed is...

-The Telegraph With opportunity costs attached to the livelihoods of pastoralists being so high, the government must facilitate their safe movement India is battling a second wave of Covid-19 infections; this time it has made inroads into rural India. Pastoral communities, who have limited information about the symptoms, preventive measures, diagnosis, treatment and vaccination, are becoming silent victims. A brief by the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development claims that...

-The Wire Science The camel is known popularly as the ship of the desert. But for all their resilience in the austere environs of the Thar desert, their numbers have plummeted in recent years. According to the 20th livestock census, released in 2019, there are some 2.5 lakh camels, down from the 4 lakh counted during the previous census in 2012. And this decline has environmentalists, policymakers and camel herders worried. Rajasthan...

-Down to Earth Allocation of village land for the development of solar and wind parks at the cost of pasture land is detrimental for villages Residents of Devikot village in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district are fighting to protect a sacred grove that caters to the Forage requirements of more than 35,000 large and small animals in the area. Sacred groves are areas of natural vegetation protected by village communities due to religious reasons. Historically,...

-The Times of India Growing grass and selling it in the market may be more profitable than cultivating crops like wheat, rice, pulses or oilseeds. This bizarre conclusion, a reflection of the desperate conditions of Indian farmers, can be reached if one looks at how the value of various crops has changed over the last five years. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, the total value of cereals and pulses produced in the country went...