-Hindustan Times Afghanistan has been driving the dry fruit business in Khari Baoli, which is India’s biggest dry fruit market and home to some of the oldest dry fruit importers in the country. Surjeet Singh, a wholesale dry fruits trader, is watching the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan with great concern. “My business is completely dependent on Afghanistan; almost everything here is imported from there, ” says Singh, pointing to a range of dry...

-PTI DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul has asked scientists of central research institutions in the state to come up with ways to encourage small farmers to begin organic farming. Paul made these suggestions to the scientists during his his visit to Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) and Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Mukteshwar to study the possibilities of benefiting local farming and animal husbandry through these central research institutions,...

ZAVOORA, India (AlertNet) – Amid thousands of tree stumps stretching over almost 60 hectares (150 acres) of bare plateau, there are signs of life. Delicate saplings of kail and deodar conifers are growing between other newly planted deciduous trees.  The woodland had been cut down illegally by loggers and encroached upon for farming. But forestry officials here in Shopian district, a two-hour drive south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s...

India's rural innovators have proved that ordinary people are indeed capable of extraordinary inventions. Despite many constraints -- lack of education and severe cash crunch -- most of them have succeeded in using technology cost-effectively to build ingenious products. A washing-cum-exercise machine, hand operated water lifting device, portable smokeless stove, automatic food making machine, solar mosquito killer, shock proof converter, a floating toilet soap are few of the products on display...

Kinnauri rajmash, chilgoza (pinus gerardiana), walnut and dried apricots have always been in high demand and commanded a competitive price in the market, but connecting them with the concept of organic food has yielded high premiums for farmers in the state. Himalayan Organisation for Organic Agri Products (HIMOARD), based at Rampur in Shimla, has brought international recognition for these farm products of the tribal district of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh....