For nearly three decades of negotiations on ways to contain global warming, food systems and agriculture did not feature prominently at the annual UN climate summits. That changed in the…
A recent report reveals that the global agrifood system, while having benefits of nutrition and livelihood, has hidden costs, such as those related to health and the environment. These add…
Sustainable food systems will be a key consideration at the UN climate change conference this year, with a day dedicated to food, agriculture and water, at the event where world…
While India races ahead with dreams of how it will emerge as a leader in the world, little attention is being paid to the massive degradation of soil. It is…
Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan breathed his last on September 28. He had celebrated his 98th birthday on August 7. Swaminathan had been keeping indifferent health for the past few…
This is the second story in a three-part series, where Mongabay-India examines the reasons for stubble burning in central India, the possible solutions to end stubble burning and also analyses…
A popular snack in India, makhana, is the seed of a water lily species, Euryale ferox, found in south and east Asia. When harvested, it is actually a tough blackish…
Sabhalgarh Compartment 8, in the Haridwar forest division is known to the residents as Gaindi Khatta. This is a settlement of the Van Gujjar community, who have been relocated and…
This is the first in a three-part series, where Mongabay-India attempts to identify the reasons for stubble burning in central India, find out possible solutions to end stubble burning and…
Delighted to have recorded an unprecedented harvest of 41 quintals (one quintal = 100 kilograms) of pearl millet towards the end of 2022, from an acre (0.4 hectares) of land,…
Every few weeks, 53-year-old agricultural entomologist Rajendra Hegde addresses a large gathering in Bengaluru, where he puts forth a proposition: imagine walking up to your rooftops or balconies and foraging…
Armed with the idea that shifting cultivation is primitive and unsustainable, based on a certain narrative she was exposed to in the academic world, Assam-born researcher Joli Rumi Borah had…
India's wheat crop this year has been hit because of excessive rainfall in the crucial month of March, when the crop enters the vital grain-filling stage and gets ready for…
Buoyed by a “geographer’s heart”, environmental geographer Ruth DeFries started using satellite data in the 1990s to generate global vegetation maps to feed climate models. Unraveling drivers of deforestation in…
In late February, the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), a leading scientific institute for wheat, released an advisory recommending farmers in India to spray potassium chloride on…
The 2022 Assam floods, following record-breaking rains, were the worst that the state has seen in the last decade. Soon-after, some districts faced a drought-like situation forcing farmers to work…
Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming, reiterates the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Water scientist Aditi Mukherji and one of the…
Devsharan Patel, 53, a farmer in Dhatura, a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district, is on his way to his field. He carries a battery-operated pesticide sprayer on his shoulder.…
“It was around seven in the evening. During a routine inspection in my field, I discovered a herd of seven-eight wild boars. They were big, some 2.5-3 feet in height.…
India is the fourth-largest producer of agrochemicals in the world, declared agricultural minister Narendra Singh Tomar, at a speech in September 2021. Speaking at the 41st annual general meeting of…
