-IndiaSpend.com Punjab has amongst the highest use of fertilisers, pesticides and large machinery, including government support for chemical farming, making it difficult to transition to organic and natural farming. Chandigarh: When Ashok Kumar, 63, started doing organic farming on three acres of his farm in Sohangarh Rattewala village in Punjab's western Ferozepur district in 2012, the benefits of good health and a cleaner environment were foremost on his mind. Besides growing food...

-Down to Earth A federation of farmer-producer organisations has tapped into the growing organic market to help members raise incomes  Catering directly to the consumers’ needs assures better marketability and incomes. This is what nearly 10,000 farmers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have realised over the past decade and are now steering a silent organic movement. It all began in 2009, when a group of consumers in Hyderabad, then part of unified Andhra...

Are public sector banks (PSBs) important for the economy? Have the PSBs served the purpose for which they were created? Could the PSBs compete efficiently against the private sector banks (PVBs)? These are some of the questions, which have been answered by a chapter in the RBI Bulletin's August edition. Efficiency of PSBs Co-authored by Snehal S Herwadkar, Sonali Goel, and Rishuka Bansal (2022) of the Banking Research Division, Reserve Bank of...

-TheWire.in * In his independence day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said natural farming and chemical-free farming can give a boost to self-reliance. * Because organic farming means less intensive agriculture, and in turn, decreased crop productivity, experts say India’s food security could be impacted. * Rather than a radical shift to organic farming, a middle path that combines conventional agriculture will suit the country best, they say. Kochi: “Organic farming is our duty,”...

Door-to-door and village-to-village surveys carried out by researchers of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana detected a total of 9,291 suicides that were committed by farmers in six districts of Punjab during the period from 2000 to 2018. Situated in the Malwa region of Punjab, which is known for cotton farming and the prevalence of cancer among its population, Sangrur (2,506) witnessed the highest number of...