Irrigation

Inconsistencies in Centre's flagship irrigation scheme, reveals CAG audit

Nikhil Bagdi has attempted suicide twice in the past one month. Fortunately, his neighbours came to his rescue whenever he tried to end his life by hanging from the ceiling of his room. Nikhil lives in Serorai village of Bardhaman district in West Bengal, a little over 120 kilometres from Kolkata. 

Droughts are one of the most feared natural calamities in India impacting food production, the economy as well as the morale of millions of farmers in a country where

Sikri is a small village that lies 65 km north-west of Bharatpur on the Alwar road. The village used to depend on a traditional irrigation system that assured water throughout the year. A local saying related to the water availability at Sikri goes thus: Lakh daal le chittri, jay rahoongi Sikri (You may put lakhs of fetters to stop it, but the waters will still reach Sikri). This saying has lost its sheen today as the village is now finding itself in the centre of a struggle for water among farmers.

Yamuna river pollution: NMCG approves projects worth Rs 1,573 crore

A new study, Mahanadi: Coal Rich, Water-Stressed sheds light on how both Odisha and Chhattisgarh have locked horns over the distribution of waters of the Mahanadi river. The 851-km-long river originates in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh, flows through the state and then Odisha before joining the Bay of Bengal at Odisha’s coast.

As per the agricultural statistics of 2014, nearly 430 people depend on farming in India while 263 million people are either farmers or agricultural workers. Farmers are major contributors to the growth of Indian economy and their concerns impact policies in the country. 

Wetlands are very important and productive ecosystems that support a wide range of plants and animals and provide livelihood opportunities to local communities in India. However, they are increasingly being threatened by rapid urbanisation, pollution, developmental interventions, unsustainable management practices and encroachment.

In a drought-prone region like Vidarbha in Maharashtra, mostly in the news for water scarcity and farmer suicide, it is not every day that you hear the success story of a farmer. That's why the story of Savi Thangavel, 69, a resident of Mohegaon village which is just 22 km from Nagpur, is special. He took up date farming when nobody even thought about it and became the first successful date farmer in the region.

A group of researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and University of Illinois have developed transgenic rice that promises to generate high yields even under conditions of high salinity, high temperature and drought.