Written by Kunzang Deachen, Chozin Palmo and Jigmet Singge Ladakh – high on the Tibetan Plateau at the northern extreme of India – is the place we call home. The vast majority of Ladakhis are villagers, who have, for centuries, provided for most of their physical and emotional needs through interdependent webs of relationship with the land and with community. We[Read More…]
According to recent official data of Himachal Pradesh government, its efforts to spread natural farming practices among farmers have led to 56 per cent reduction of costs of farmers and 27 per cent increase of income among farmers who adopted these practices. This happened under the natural farming prosperous farmers scheme ( prakrit kheti khushhal kisan yojana). According to leading[Read More…]
When Yogesh Gandhi set up his medical store in Phaltan about 100 km from Pune in Satara district of Maharashtra, he invited his uncle, natural farmer Babulal Gandhi, to make an inauguration speech. “We should not be having medical stores in our cities – we should instead provide good food and a clean environment, one that fosters health and well-being.[Read More…]
Hilly areas with their varying heights and land categories are known for their valuable bio-diversity which should be protected. The vast Himalayan ranges including hills and valleys, plains and peaks in particular are all the more important in this context. While the tendency to introduce genetic uniformity of monocultures was unfortunate everywhere, it was all the more harmful in the[Read More…]
Seed is the base of all life. Recognizing this obvious fact, farmers for well over a hundred generations and for several thousand years cared for seeds, respected seeds, and helped to promote a great diversity of seeds. Hence they had different seeds for different needs, for different weather conditions, for different kinds of land and soil. Diverse varieties of seeds[Read More…]
Recently Sant Seechewal, saint and award winning eco-activist of Punjab, visited protesting farmers at Delhi border with the precious gift of a truckload of healthy food. However the message he brought him was even more precious—he called upon them to shift to natural farming and mutually cooperative farming in order to find more reliable and sustainable solutions to their problems.[Read More…]
While the social benefits of ecologically protective, organic and/or natural farming are so obvious, it is sometimes said that in economic terms this may not be so beneficial for farmers and this thinking becomes a big hurdle in the spread of ecologically protective farming. However the advocates of ecologically protective farming and low external input farming give several important reasons[Read More…]
The farmers’ movement in India has a historically very important role in protecting the small ( and medium ) farmer base of agriculture in the country. In recent times the movement has done well to oppose the corporatization trends as these ultimately present a threat to small farmers, as has been evident from the historical experience of many countries. This[Read More…]
There is worldwide realization that food system has been becoming less safe and healthy. This is to a large extent because of the use of excessive chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Some of the inputs used in fact have been found to be so poisonous and harmful that it is a very sad surprise how their use in food and[Read More…]
An assortment of organically grown produce lay out at a Farmer’s Market Prior to this pandemic summer, every year from May to November — there was something magical about waking up on Sunday mornings. I could walk three blocks from my house to the open space under large Walnut trees near the Hospital to get a week’s worth of organic[Read More…]
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the risks of an unhealthy diet and the extreme fragility of food systems. The economic reconstruction that will follow the pandemic is the perfect opportunity to provide better nutrition and health to all. The pandemic should spur us to redefine how we feed ourselves, and agricultural research can play a vital role in making our[Read More…]
It is possible to feed more than 9 billion people with organic production methods with a small increase in the required crop acreage and with decreased greenhouse gas emission. But this assumes considerable reduction in food wastage and in the quantities of feed grown to animals. That is the conclusion in the paper Strategies for feeding the world more sustainably with[Read More…]
An interview with Miguel Ramirez, National Coordinator of the Organic Agriculture Movement of El Salvador We say that every square meter of land that is worked with agro-ecology is a liberated square meter. We see it as a tool to transform farmers’ social and economic conditions. We see it as a tool of liberation from the unsustainable capitalist agricultural model[Read More…]
Uttarakhand Again Faces Serious Disaster Situation 
Rail passengers in MP demand restoration of pre-Covid train services 
Our Future vs. Neoliberalism 
US billionaire wealth increased 70 percent since the start of the pandemic 
Future of Dalits in India 
An Indigenous peoples’ approach to climate justice 
What Youth-Led Movements Teach Us About Democracy 
La Niña is Here 
Digital Farm Technology Is Not the Climate Panacea Corporations Want You to Think It Is 
Narrative traps in India’s decision-making 
Colin Powell: Establishment Warrior 
Adventures in American Education 
A Time for Giving Special Attention to Safety of Coal Miners 
There is an elephant in the room 
Climate Change Viewed from the Attic of the World 
“Undertrials” for how long? Guilty till proven innocent? 
Global lung health meet opens with top three science announcements 
Special Significance of Protecting Boral River 
Colin Powell, an image with a vial of lie, is dead 
Commemoration to mark 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians 
War Talk from the Mad Monk: Tony Abbott goes to Taiwan 
Don’t Let Youth Climate Activists Like Me Burn Out 
The Banners of the King of Hell Advance 
In U.S. Foreign Policy, Realists Are Finally on the Rise 
Empty Gestures or Substantive Change? On the Nobel Prize in Literature and Its Discontents 
Something Worse than Slavery? 
Broken white rice from India withdrawn from European Union after found to being GM in origin 
After Corbyn, Israel lobby turns its guns on UK academia 
Islam Reached India through Arab Traders rather than Invaders 
Global Debt Leaps to $226 Trillion, reports IMF 
The Farce of Dry days and Dry states 
Food Sovereignty: A Manifesto for the Future of Our Planet 
Beyond Science: Art and the Environment 
Seeing the Future, When No One Believes You 
A Giant Leap for Palestine? Stay tuned! 
‘Small Farmers, the Glory of the Nation’ 
India’s declining position in the global hunger index and growing hunger due to lack of nutritious food … 
Rice Biodiversity in India Faces A New and Serious Threat 
Contributions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Some Critical Reflections 
Pope Francis Urges Pharma Giants to Release Covid-19 Vaccine Patents 
This year there was international outrage when a frail 84-year-old Jesuit priest with Parkinson’s disease, Stan Swamy, died after being held in an Indian jail in inhumane conditions, on flimsy charges. When he was eventually moved to hospital, he tested positive for Covid and went on to suffer a cardiac arrest. He had devotedly served the poor and defended their[Read More…]
