-Down to Earth Rise in demand for meat and dairy products was reconciled through the intensification of livestock systems Intensification of food production is gaining prominence in a world battered by climate change and food insecurity. Intensification aims to increase output for each unit of input (labour, land, time, fertiliser, seed, feed, or money). The need for intensification is more pressing when the supply of food needs to be augmented. For instance, in...

-Press release by FAO dated 6 July 2022 The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition Rome/New York: The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United...

-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...

-Down to Earth With sustainable development goals in place, increasing democratisation and connectivity of the world, ecologisation of politics and vice-versa will become the new norm Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai wrote: In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may  seem so obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and  peace. Decreasing resource base and the  struggle for control and power leads to politicising ecological issues...

-Livemint.com * The latest Situation Assessment Survey adds to findings that reveal worsening agrarian distress * Our agricultural sector has been in a state of perpetual decline after 2012-13 and is reeling under such shocks as back-to-back droughts, demonetization and the covid-19 pandemic Earlier this month, the National Statistical Office released the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households for the 2018-19 agricultural year, which runs from July to June. This is the...