Research is not magic solutions take a long time
S K SINHA, former director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), is currently a National Professor at the Water Technology …
Bt-by-Bt assessment
On November 10, 2002, people wearing 'Bollgard' caps visited cotton farmer R Narsimha Reddy at his home in Aleru, a village in Nalgonda, Andhra …
Manipulating Research
Private funding has given a new meaning to scientific research today. With rising corporate research budgets, academic institutions are leaning …
Long yarn
The cotton story is a tangled tale. In many parts of India, farmers are committing suicide. It's been a while Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and now …
Flat in 20 days
Global climatic anomalies allied with local weather conditions produced the most freakish hailstorms in central and north India in February and …
Dealing with crop stresses and scandals
Subbanna Ayyappan has made history in the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (IACR) by becoming the first non-crop scientist to head this …
Saving rice
Rice is at the heart of a fierce strategy debate as the country prepares to launch the second Green Revolution in the eastern states. …
Fungal flood: Increasing disease, aided by climate change, risk to global food security
Practising monoculture in modern agriculture provides ideal grounds for fungi
Remote sensing can resolve food crisis
It can help understand time-varying meteorological parameters for sustainable use in irrigation and crop management in the Indo-Gangetic basin
Threat for Bhagalpur's mango growers: Red banded mango caterpillar
This is the second consecutive year that the pest has affected the mango crop in Bhagalpur and surrounding areas, known for its famous Zardalu brand
Update overdue: Why climate change should be integrated into crop calendars at the hyper local level
India still sows according to a calendar created on the weather of the 1990s, though rainfall and temperature patterns have seen a major shift
Improving India’s oilseeds production
Technological, institutional and policy-based changes can improve the oilseed production in India
Report flags growing threat of monoculture in crop production
Only 9 plant species account for 66 per cent of total crop production, says Food and Agriculture Organisation 2019 report
Causing a flutter
The safety of genetically-engineered crops comes under a cloud after the deaths of the monarch butterflies in the US
Pink bollworm a potent threat to GM cotton
The quest to promote Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton may suffer a serious setback with scientists from the US-based University of Arizona …
Seeds for Iife
Scientists and NGOs find common ground in ensuring that farmers possess the divers they can use and conserve
Pest warning
Climate change is influencing migratory patterns and evolution in pests, threatening our food basket
Weed menace
Careless dumping of genetically modified canola plants triggers an outcry in South Australia
Book review: Seeds of Contention
The good thing about this book is that it makes a clear attempt to scale down the shrill rhetoric of the gm debate. The sharp language and …
Debating GM crops: Let sound science, and so good sense, inform it
The Paris-based International Council for Science, a federation of more than 100 national science academies, has come out with the biggest review …
Crop insurance scheme hits premium hurdle
Farmers may not benefit from the new scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, in the current season, as states are reluctant to implement it. …
Cotton-eating monsters lay low the farmers
Cotton farmers in northwest India were taken by surprise when, despite a pesticide blitzkrieg, the American bollworm devastated half their crops. …
In a sudden u-turn, Madhya Pradesh refuses to include three Rabi crops under Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana
The decision comes after Centre refused to contribute 50 per cent towards Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana
European-origin pathogen poses big threat to potato crop in India
Scientists at West Bengal State University have found 19 unique and highly aggressive variants of Phytophthora infestans, a microorganism that …
Promoting permaculture can put an end to GMO culture in India
Experts at the 13th Permaculture Convergence in Telangana reposed faith in permaculture and urged farmers to explore this as an alternative to …