"Rainfed agriculture in India is a risky enterprise, owing to uncertainties in rainfall,” reads a World Bank article published in February 2023. More than half of India's net sown area…
India's agricultural sector stands at a crucial crossroads today, grappling with numerous challenges that threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and the sustainability of the planet. In recent times,…
You might have seen organic food products at your local grocery store. But what is the process that goes into certifying these products as organic? And why are they so…
As Indian cities expand, concerns about their rising food demand and the accompanying pressure on the agriculture sector cannot be ignored. Indian agriculture is already under scrutiny for being one…
Prabhakar B. is a traditional farmer from Nangali village in Karnataka’s Kolar district. Along with P. Srinivas, popularly known as ‘Soil Vasu’, he leases degraded rainfed plots and converts them…
Kalpana Sethi, 30, exuberantly shows around her two-acre land, which was once a wasteland but now aids in her children’s education. Situated on a moderate slope, in the Bisoi village…
Though still a niche market, “environment-friendly chocolates”, which are being developed with low-waste processes and social consciousness, are gaining a steady, loyal customer base in India. For Nitin Chordia, the…
When Super Cyclone Amphan hit 24 South Parganas district of West Bengal in May last year, it broke embankments, allowing seawater to directly enter the rice fields destroying the crop.…
In 2002-03, G. Krishna Prasad, a weekend farmer and director of the organic farmers’ collective, Sahaja Samrudha, spotted a plot growing ragi in Bengaluru’s Lavelle Road. Older Bengaluru residents like…
Ups and downs don’t seem to end for the farming community in Karnataka. After the COVID-19 associated lockdown caused severe losses to the farmers, whose produce got spoilt in the…
Kaliamma Nanjan, 70, sings as she cuts through her farm in Kerala's Western Ghats. She deftly navigates the slopes of Attappady in Palakkad district with the gravity-defying dexterity of a…
Zero Budget Natural Farming is a fairly self-explanatory term. An alternative to conventional farming, ZBNF claims to have an almost negligible investment in farming by adopting chemical-free agriculture, drawn from…
Asha’s husband did not believe her initially. Neither did most of her neighbours in Pichompa Kalan, Haryana. An orchard of citrus fruits, mangoes, watermelons, amla, jamun, apricot, pulses and cereals—how…
Twenty-six-year-old Laxmi Salami comes from a long line of farmers who have remained true to the tried and tested ways of cotton cultivation that they know. Not surprisingly, she was…
Father George Quadros hit upon the idea of collective farming almost by accident. As an amateur farmer, he has been dabbling in various cultivation methods since 1986 at southern Goa’s…
Biopesticides are yet to take off in a major way in India because of mixed constraints, despite their enormous market potential and the national and state initiatives to promote them…
Once upon a time, in the semi-arid plains of Kutch, grew plants that bore soft white tufts of indigenous, Wagad cotton. The cotton’s softness was in contrast to its hardy…
Ravi Shankar Rai (35), a farmer in Joga Musahib village of Mohammadabad tehsil in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, owns eight hectares of rain-fed agricultural land. He cultivates wheat, potato…
In January this year, farmers across the state of Punjab took to the roads in protest. In 12 districts of the state, they were protesting against banks that filed cases…
India has the potential to cut 18 percent of its annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from agriculture and livestock, reports a team of researchers from the International Maize and…
