Time to redress

The needs of the small farmer require attention: small tractors or animal power? Both?

65 million draught animals

What runs the small farming economy?

Foreign influence

Instead of designing a low-priced indigenous tractor, industry copies models used abroad

Jan Aushadhi Stores fail to take off

Very few visit governmentÔÇÖs generics retail outlets

Why is fodder so expensive?

Supply from agriculture and forests is dwindling  

Persistent in folly

Rice and wheat fetch a secure price and subsidies on farm inputs. Coarse grains have no place in the public distribution system, although their …

Rice: the real cost

It is said the future wars would be fought over the issue of water, not land. Yet Indian government promotes rice, which consumes water, over …

Grain of truth

India's public distribution system promotes rice and wheat. These water-intensive crops require more inputs and are less nutritious as compared …

The escape route

Punjab, which accounts for only 1.5 per cent of the total geographical area of the country, cannot continue producing for the whole country. It …

Cancer-struck

Incidence of cancer and other diseases have increased. But callous officials prefer to call it a 'coincidence'

Punjab: end of the revolution ?

Cost of production has spiralled, but the rate of increase in production has not shown a similar trend. Ecological and social costs, meanwhile, …

Diminishing returns

Participation or takeover?

Private companies now dictate terms in Maharashtra’s agriculture sector. Punjab follows suit

Same indifference

City on trial

Chandigarh resists luxury residential project but fails to rehabilitate its slum population to preserve its master plan

Minor no more

Environment ministry regulates mining of minor minerals, finally

'SLAPP'ed but will not submit

When all flows out

The recent dispute over the Indus' waters stems from its faulty allocation

Extinguished!

Conventional politics breaks up the fiery spirit of an ideal self-sustaining forest community

Punjab sets an example by banning junk food in schools

By not allowing children to bring junk food from home, the state education department's message—that junk food is unhealthy—is made …

Home where the blackbuck roam

The religion of the Bishnoi community in Punjab has protected the blackbuck

Wealth from waste

A farmer from Hitapur village in Ludhiana district of Punjab has evolved a system of resourcefully utilising all his farm waste

No chapattis

For some young children, wheat is like poison

The acre-feet fuss

But Punjab and Haryana farmers depend on groundwater!

Tackling rape and sexual violence

It is time we had a national body, not merely our politically appointed, generally toothless  Womens' Commissions, with trained, dedicated …