Full Coverage: Agriculture

18.05.2007 Transnational coffee companies dominate an industry worth over $80 billion a year, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. Black Gold looks at it from the perspective of Ethiopian farmers.

18.05.2007

18.05.2007 Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, a £3.9 million (approximately US$7.8 million) project has been launched to help poor farmers in developing countries of the future outbreaks of avian influenza. The project also involves research in developing countries on the strategies for the control of disease and to safeguard their livelihood.

18.05.2007 E-Choupal is a unique internet service that has been made available at the doorstep of farmers in India. Introduced by the retail sector, e-Choupal provides farmers with agricultural information through ICTs. Through the e-Choupal initiative, ITC has increased its competitiveness and empowered farmers through access to technology and the Internet.

17.05.2007 Contract farming is increasingly being presented as a solution for the problems of Indian agriculture, by major international donor agencies, multinational companies and even the government.

14.05.2007 The Indian government, in its upcoming planning commission meeting on strategies to boost agriculture and its output, is set to address women's right to land. Moving forward on the proposed 30 percent resource allocation for women in XI five year plan, this meeting will address the need to include women's access and control over land, infrastructure support, ICT and technical knowhow, credit, inputs and marketing as a move towards recognizing and enhancing their contribution to growth in the agriculture sector.

07.05.2007 With a humane and empathetic farmer-sensitive approach, eighty Kisan Call Centres (KCC) across the country are addressing issues raised by farmers from fungus on brinjals to kisan credit cards and prices of insecticides. Neeta Lal from the Women's Feature Service, reports on the working of these centres, their problems and potential.

03.05.2007 India's emergence as the 12th country in the world with a trillion-dollar economy could prove to be a mixed blessing, and there are fears that it could slow down the growth of this country's computer software and information technology (IT)-enabled services as well as the export of textiles and garments.

01.05.2007 Heavy loans, power, water shortage and natural disasters are driving farmers of many Indian states to suicide. The widows of these farmers are struggling hard to keep their farms running. Lack of knowledge and contacts, no support from male farmers, mostly relatives, and vulnerability to exploitation and cheating - for them now, it could be a losing battle.