Penny foolish, pond wise

Paan loses flavour

The way paan is associated with India, a Chaurasia is associated with paan. But both the equations are changing, said Lalta Prasad Chaurasia, spitting blood red betel juice into an elegantly designed brass spittoon. The 58-year-old is among the last generation of Chaurasia farmers in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh who have witnessed betel leaves yield a fortune. Both betel leaves and the Chaurasias are an integral part of Mahoba’s history. The district is known for its betel gardens and the Chaurasias are India’s exclusive community devoted to betel farming. But they are now finding it difficult to sustain the family occupation.

Saving rice

Something is stirring in paddy fields across India. New seeds, new crop management techniques and newly minted food security policies are about to hit the countryside. Not all of the changes that are being forged in Krishi Bhawan, headquarters of the Union agriculture ministry, in the top-flight research institutions across the country, and in the boardrooms of leading global and domestic seed companies are visible as yet. But these policies could transform the country’s rice landscape, perhaps, in an unalterable manner.

The weather mart

Archita Bhatta and Rohini Rangarajan Met department is not the only one predicting weather in India. Forecasts are now sold by businesses to businesses

A home-grown drought

Monsoon this year has failed most of India, causing drought in even well-irrigated and rainfed areas. Ravleen Kaur reports how our food preferences are making us vulnerable to drought

Don't need subsidies, give us the right price

For most Indians, Mahendra Singh Tikait is the man who brought Delhi to its knees in 1988 with a rally that brought the national capital face to face with the agrarian reality. While others who relied on his support went on to positions like cabinet minsters and opted for comfortable alliances with agribusiness companies, Tikait remained a farmer leader. In a three-hour interview, he spoke of India's agrarian crisis and its underlying causes.

The inside story

The idea that food has therapeutic value is not a new one. Ayurveda, for instance, recommends diet regimes based on seasons and on an individual's constitution (see box: Take cues from traditional wisdom). And it's not just this ancient system of medicine. Traditional communities in most countries had dietary practices that placed a premium on nutrition.

Aaj Ka Roadshow

Back in the 20th century, when India had villages, there were several popular films that showed villages in a contemporary light. Well, somewhat. While Indian cinema was urban from its very beginning, there were several films of immense popularity that were, in many ways, a statement of the presence of the Indian village. In these films, the protagonist was often a villager or a city-bred male who headed out to the village. For the city folk, these films were reminders.

The negotiators

There exist, in India today, at least two ways of resolving water-related conflicts. One is the way the conflict over river Cauvery is being managed. The river of woes for Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and her Karnataka counterpart S M Krishna, not a single day has passed in the last six months when both haven't worried over their rights. For the states, it is an intense three-decade old battle.

Field day

What is soil? Nothing but simple clod, always taken for granted. But dig deeper, and you will find that this simple clod generates complex equations of survival and wealth, equity and polity. It is a big little ecological variable. Its influences remain hidden from us.