Agriculture

Red List wonder with a trunk full of beautiful fruit

Shree Padre

How does a tree found deep in the forest and listed as a threatened species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List catch the attention of farmers and become a local icon? That’s what’s happening to Baccaurea courtallensis, a forest tree endemic to the Western Ghats

Cashew apple juice, anyone? Farmers need markets

Shree Padre

IN April this year, Vishwakeshava and Navyashri Kuruveri, two young areca nut farmers, joined a training programme at the Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR) in Puttur, Karnataka, to learn how to make cashew apple juice and extract its pulp. After training, the couple returned home, set up a tentative unit

Coldpressed brings FPOs into markets

Civil Society News, New Delhi

In recent years small producer companies have come up in Rajasthan to tap into the lucrative urban demand for coldpressed cooking oils. The state is India’s largest producer of oilseeds and mustard is its signature crop. In Karauli district of Rajasthan the Dang Vikas Farmer Producer Company (FPC), started a

From America to India on a yatra for mango divine

Shree Padre

ANIL Sharma’s love affair with the mango began around 10 years ago. Walking around a store in Chicago, where he’s been living for 30 years, he spotted Chausa mangoes for sale by sheer chance, he says. He bought a box, took it home, and ate one. It tasted heavenly. “The

Mustard brightens up the fields of Kashmir farmers

Jehangir Rashid, Srinagar

MILES of yellow mustard fields dot the picturesque landscape of Jammu and Kashmir, indicating the increasing success of oilseed cultivation in the state. Through meticulous planning and strategic intervention, the National Oilseeds Mission is transforming agricultural practices in the region. By incentivizing farmers to shift to cultivation of oilseeds during

Jackfruit in dumpling is a winner in Kerala

Shree Padre

A steamed dumpling made of ripe jackfruit, jaggery and rice flour wrapped in an aromatic leaf with the fragrance of cinnamon has begun to enjoy popularity as a snack. It is proving to be a winner for the Neeloor Producer Company (NPC), a farmer-producer organization (FPO) in Kottayam district of

Passion fruit finds value and rises in the south

Shree Padre

A little known fruit, synonymous with the northeast, is finding takers in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Passion fruit is the rising star among fruits. Due to increasing demand for sweet, edible passion fruit and not the juice, farmers are scrambling to find the right varieties,

The new and juicy bael has arrived

Shree Padre

In the blistering summer of northern India, everyone is familiar with the benefits of a soothing glass of bael juice. But the humble and drab-looking fruit’s popularity soon fades when the weather changes. In the hierarchy of the fruit kingdom, it ranks at the bottom in terms of appeal and

GM food crops are not needed here

Civil Society News, New Delhi

Till very recently the Indian government, supported by a range of farmer, health and environmental activists, had taken a clear decision not to permit any genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) food crop in the country, keeping in view the widely documented risks and hazards associated with such crops.

Dig a pond in memory of a loved one, nourish the earth

Rakesh Agrawal

WHEN Sukhdev Chamoli’s 87-year-old father died, he was overwhelmed with grief. He too is an elderly 67. His mother had died some years before. “She used to say, die today and tomorrow is another day, which means the dead are soon forgotten,” recalls Chamoli. But he wanted to do something

Mango in a big hurry lasts just three days

Shree Padre

WHAT does a farmer do with a haul of juicy mangoes that have a shelf life of just one day? The easy thing to do is to dump those mangoes and grow the pricy Alphonso or Totapuri instead. But that’s not a choice the farmers of Ankola taluk in Uttara

Lanka could learn from Sikkim how to go organic

Civil Society News, New Delhi

WHEN the Sri Lankan economy collapsed with a sigh recently, prominently sticking out of the debris was a failed attempt to take the island nation into full-scale organic agricultural production. The Rajapaksa government had virtually overnight ordered a switch to organic agriculture to save foreign exchange on the import of

Bulls to become dinosaurs?

Bharat Dogra

IN a country where bullocks have served humanity in numerous ways for thousands of years and, in fact, continue to do so in a large number of villages, it is likely to be deeply troubling that high-level efforts with complete official support are in full gear to prevent bullocks from

Bad apples: Scab takes a big toll in Himachal

Raj Machhan, Chandigarh

Apple orchards in Himachal Pradesh have fallen victim to a disease called scab after a gap of 38 years, taking growers by surprise. In certain pockets as much as 60 percent of the apple crop has been affected. Ashutosh Chauhan, an orchardist from Ratnari in Shimla district, says, “The last

Saffron blooms in the South

Shree Padre

FOR 39-year-old Girish Muchal Ramaswamy, a rose farmer in Vasupura village, November 11, 2021 was a day of great significance. As he stepped into his cold storage that day, an exciting new fragrance greeted him. Ramaswamy recognized the aroma. He realized saffron had finally bloomed in his cold storage. After

How Jana chose traditional farming

Bibhubanta Barad, Parijat Ghosh and Dibyendu Chaudhuri, New Delhi

On a sunny morning in the summer of 2017, a women’s Self-Help Group (SHG) at Jana, a village in the Gumla district of Jharkhand, congregated beneath a tamarind tree, their usual meeting place. They were discussing loans to be given to members to buy chemical fertilizers and hybrid seeds. Since

How Punjab planted paddy minus labour

Raj Machhan, Chandigarh

Agricultural workers from Bihar and UP left Punjab in droves during the lockdown. Looming ahead was the paddy season. What would farmers do? Those on whom they depended had all gone home. Yet, paddy was planted in record time, just before the monsoon. How did farmers manage it? “We anticipated

Assam gourd hits a sweet spot in Karnataka

Shree Padre

A small spiny vegetable from Assam is set to debut in Malnad district of Karnataka. Locally known as madahagala or kartoli (Momordica dioica) in Kannada, its Assamese counterpart is called kakrol (Momordica subangulata). The local madahagala, a wild spine gourd variety, is grown by just a few farmers in coastal

Climbing classes: Young men in Kerala get up areca trees

Shree Padre

For 15 years Prashanth, a 37-year-old villager living near Thirthahally in Karnataka, slaved at a granite quarry and a petrol station, although he was an educated man who had completed a pre-university course. The little he earned disappeared into paying for food and other basic expenses. The net result was