Full Coverage: Agriculture

29.02.2008 India has announced its budget for the next financial year. In a move to provide a major relief to the small farmers, the government has decided to cancel their entire debt. It may be noted that for past many years now the farmers have been committing suicides due to indebtedness and other related reasons.

20.02.2008 The 2008 Global Development Marketplace Competition invites proposals on the theme - Sustainable Agriculture for Development. The programme offers grants to innovative ideas for development and serves as an excellent launchpad for social entrepreneurship.

07.02.2008 After having spent 25 billion US dollars on building dams between 1990-2004, the actual area under irrigation in India has shrunk. Reasons vary from siltation to bad maintenance to diverting the water for urban and industrial use.

07.02.2008 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a US$ 19 million grant to develop rice varieties that can withstand the effects of climate change. The money will benefit nearly half a million farmers in Africa and Asia who depend on rain fed agriculture for their livelihoods.

07.02.2008 Impoverished regions of South Asia will be hit first and hardest by climate change, along with southern Africa, say scientists. Under the circumstances the best strategy for agriculture is diversity not monocultures. Solutions from outside are unlikely to work so there will be a need for localised approach.