-NITI Aayog Working Paper, ISBN: 978-81-953811-7-3 Abstract -  The importance of agriculture in an economy usually declines as it climbs the development ladder. Raising agriculture productivity has been known to be an important precursor. Labour productivity in agriculture can either be increased by higher land productivity or higher land availability per farmer and mechanisation. In India, however, the dramatic increase in land productivity through industrial farming has caused severe environmental damage and...

-The New Indian Express Yanamala Jagadeesh Reddy, hailing from Danduvaripalle in Bangarupalem mandal cultivates paddy, mango, millets in 20 acres without using chemicals. TIRUPATI: Inspired by the words of Subhash Palekar on natural farming and his technique of zero-budget natural farming, a farmer from Chittoor district has adopted natural farming and now he is netting good profits. He has been cultivating paddy, mango, millets and other crops on his 20 acres and producing...

-TheWire.in The recent attack on an RTI activist in Rajasthan's Barmer must be seen within a larger culture of violence in the country, being perpetrated to settle scores while the state says nothing. The Right to Information (RTI) application has long since drawn violence for its use as a tool to disrupt the corrupt status quo in the country and another such incident has recently taken place in Rajasthan. Amra Ram Godara, a...

-The Hindu Amar Singh Godara had made complaints about illegal liquor trade, corruption in two schemes The brutal attack on a young right to information (RTI) activist in Barmer district has led to tension in western Rajasthan and spurred the State’s civil rights groups into action. Following the arrest of four persons for the assault, a six-member fact-finding team left here on Friday for Barmer to assess the situation. RTI activist Amar Singh...

-Down to Earth The country’s organic / natural farming coverage remains poor despite abundant indegenous resources Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to farmers December 16 to ensure that at least one village in every gram panchayat goes for natural farming methods. He highlighted the importance of ‘gaudhan’, or use of cow dung-Urine formulations, with an aim of giving a fillip to natural farming. “The maximum benefit of natural farming will be for 80...