-TheWire.in * Debal Deb began conserving indigenous varieties of rice in the 1990s after realizing that they were losing cultivation ground to other varieties preferred by the Green Revolution. * In an extended interview with The Wire Science, he explained what makes a crop resilient, why farmers should be considered scientists, and the perils of technological solutionism. * Deb also spoke at length about the problems with the Green Revolution and its troubled...

-Hindustan Times DSR ‘tar-wattar’ (good soil moisture), a low-cost mechanical sowing technique to reduce water footprint in the cultivation of water-guzzling rice by 20%, was indigenously developed by scientists of Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University BATHINDA: As farmers are expecting a sharp rise in farm labourers’ demand to charge up to ₹6,000 per acre for paddy sowing this season, direct seeding of rice (DSR), which for the first time comes with an incentive...

-TheNewsMinute.com Founded by Ananthan Krishnan, Himakiran and Parthasarathy VM, all of them organic farmers, the main aim of the Thondaimandalam Foundation is to focus on sustainable rural livelihoods. They say if an elephant were to enter a harvest-ready kaatu yanam (180-day crop) rice field, no one would know. For the sea of paddy, which would stand at least eight-feet tall, would completely hide the pachyderm. S Ganapathi Tamizhselvan, who is a paddy...

  Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-News18.com Calling for reorganisation of the agriculture sector and crop diversification, Mihir Shah said that agriculture must be thought of as an enterprise. Delhi: Incentivising cultivation of water-efficient crops and not “maniacal” river-linking is the need of the hour as the crippling water crisis bears down on India’s agrarian economy, former Planning Commission member and water conservationist Dr Mihir Shah has said. Calling for a reorganisation of the agriculture sector and crop...