In search of East India Company

Ours is a corporate age. And amid the fertile arguments on how to tame and transform today's corporation, there is a sense that current era of …

Book review: Commercial cultivation of medicinal plants

It is an obvious business risk for a farmer to give up growing conventional crops that have assured returns and start growing medicinal plants. …

Paan loses flavour

Iconic paan no more appeals to farmers, traders and common people. They say the contagious spread of chewing tobacco, especially gutkha, is fast …

Veggies delight

The rising demand for vegetables has opened up a money-making opportunity for small farmers. Already reeling from recurring droughts and …

Organic Universe

Organic is all the rage. Organic food, cosmetics, clothes and even organic medicines. But mostly it is food. There are speciality stores that …

More developing nations now dependent on commodity exports: UN report

It can negatively affect human development indicators like life expectancy, education and per capita income

Ban on exports helps protect Indian bullfrog

The decline of the Indian bullfrog was reported recently in a New Scientist article. But, it may be premature to conclude that the species is doomed.

Foreign food trade impacts importing countries’ environment too

Soybean farmers in a country that imports soybean have to switch to other crops on a land where there is leftover nitrogen after crop harvest

Up the wrong tree

A report on the US ban on shrimp exports from India, which appeared in this magazine recently, has elicited a sharp response from Earth Island …

Shrimp mentality

The us ban on exports of shrimp from India reflects a myopic approach and is likely to rebound when India takes the case to the World Trade …

Let them eat carp: Fish farms are helping to fight hunger

Contrary to perception, a vast majority of farmed fish is consumed in the same developing countries where it is produced, and is widely …

The vanilla's meeting

High prices and illegal shipments of inferior quality have badly affected Madagascar's status as premier vanilla producer.

Thais go on logging, despite ban

A UN ban on export of hardwood from Cambodia notwithstanding, Thai loggers continue to exploit loopholes and carry wood across the border.

Loggers, environmentalists at loggerheads

By lifting a ban raw wood export and levying a huge tax on it instead, officials in Jakarta have come under fire from both loggers and …

Basmati rice: the new authenticity rules aiming to remove sub-standard varieties from the market

If we don’t maintain today’s standards, it may harm the industry — and crucially the farmers who work so hard to produce this …

India bans wheat export

The Centre has banned export of all types of wheat from the country with immediate effect 

India’s water is being exported as agri-exports; is there a solution

It is critical for us to adopt the circular water management model of treating and rejuvenating wastewater at source, along with efficient water …

The ‘qissa’ of Basmati

As the European Union gets set to pronounce whether to give a GI tag to India’s Basmati rice, we explore the history of a grain that …

US firm uses new software to woo Japanese market

Microsoft Corp of USA has launched a Japanese version of the Windows 3.1 software package, which is expected to grab for it control of Japan's …

Painful cuts

Timber companiesfrom Asia stand to lose millions of dollars if a proposed law is passed by two cities in the US

Food first: After wheat, Modi government curbs sugar export

Only 10 millon tonnes can be exported in the remainder of current season ending September

US rejects Indian shrimps due to antibiotic presence

Five per cent of the rejected import products were of shrimp entry lines refused due to the presence of banned antibiotics such as …

To feed the cattle of the West

Extensive soya bean cultivation in Madhya Pradesh to supply fodder to the West has cut a swathe of degradation

Malaysia recovers palm oil sales

Malaysian palm exports to the US have increased dramatically after Malaysia retaliated against attempts to portray the product as being dangerous …

Deadly bloom

Holland's thriving tulip flower industry is under pressure to clean up its act and save the environment from degradation caused by excessive use …