It took the best scientific minds from 20 nations, including India, to scale what is considered as the “Mt. Everest of the genome world”. After 13 years of painstaking effort,…
A new study highlights a different perspective on the age-old practice of “shifting cultivation” – an agricultural form considered unsustainable and ecologically harmful. Documenting the knowledge of an indigenous community…
Twenty-eight year old Madhu Das is a computer professional from Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal. After completing his studies, unlike other youth around him, he did not migrate to…
Northern India, particularly Delhi, is notorious for its choking smog blanketing the city and nearby areas during the post-monsoon period in October-November. This is the time when farmers in the…
In the early 1940s, Henry Ford experimented with making plastic parts for automobiles. He came up with what was called the “plastic car made from soybeans.” Since that decade, when…
Stashed away in earthquake proof and environment-controlled vaults in south India, are thousands of stockpiles of seeds of crops important to semi-arid tropics covering Asia, much of southern and eastern…
Shale oil or gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) could intensify pressure on water resources in some of the shale reservoirs in India that are located in water-stressed and groundwater-depleted areas,…
Amid concerns of rising carbon dioxide levels sapping nutrients from crops, “Parbhani Shakti”, India's first biofortified sorghum variety with enhanced zinc and iron, offers hope in tackling undernutrition and preserving…
The arrival of monsoon rains in India is an annual milestone for the country. The blustery winds, loaded skies and torrential rains are signs of a good year not just…
Despite international conventions emphasising the importance of gender in achieving conservation objectives, research suggests that the recognition is superficial and particularly, in the case of the Third World development discourse,…
The humble chickpea, often sidelined as an “orphan” crop, is not short of attention anymore, thanks to the “omics” era and a growing awareness on intake of sustainable and non-processed…
In February 2010, India imposed a moratorium on commercial cultivation of the genetically modified (GM) Brinjal crop till a consensus on the safety of transgenic crops was achieved. More than…
Amid concerns over a dip in mango production this year due to climate change and pest woes, a mango database developed by Indian scientists aims to help plant breeders select…
Agriculture has been the lifeline for millions of Indian farmers since the Green Revolution in the 1960s and groundwater has played a vital role in irrigating water-hungry crops such as…
A diet that moves away from white, polished rice to include coarse grains and wheat could help Indians tackle micronutrient deficiencies affordably and cut down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated…