In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India water scarcity and poor soil quality forced many farmers to walk away from agriculture. But a few years ago, the state of Andhra Pradesh launched an ambitious program called Andhra Pradesh Community managed Natural Farming (APCNF)  that is transforming the farming practices to stop the...

It is a well-known fact that the use of organic or biological inputs has assumed importance in the promotion of organic agriculture.  In conventional agriculture where the application of chemical inputs is widely known for its direct action to feed and protect the crop,on the contrary, in organic agriculture, inputs...

Women farmers in the hill State of Himachal Pradesh are gradually turning to non-chemical, low cost “natural farming”, which has not only provided them with a sustainable livelihood but also empowered them better. Launched in 2018, the State’s Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana is promoting the climate resilient Subhash Palekar Natural Farming...

A collective vision of scaling Natural Farming in India and beyond that emerged from the workshop organized by RySS and ATECF. The workshop was attended by leaders from multiple organizations keen to scale up Natural Farming in India and beyond. The process enabled a rich evocation of the imaginations and...

A survey of fisherfolk in the Indian state of West Bengal shows that relief measures for natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic must take into account long-standing vulnerabilities. The two most important concepts to set the agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs) are ‘social development’ and ‘sustainable management’. The...

Though Kerala and Tamil Nadu are top performers on the Human Development Index, their advances in sustainability and social development do not reach small-scale fishers. Social development of fishing communities can be made possible only through policies and services for poverty eradication, employment generation and social inclusion that address the specific...

On 21 March 2020, ten days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic, a voluntary closure was imposed on all fishing and fish marketing activities in Kollam in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Shot during the peak of the first wave of Covid-19 in India, this...

Mastitis is an inflammation of one or more quarters of the udder (dairy herds) usually caused by bacterial infection. Several types of bacteria cause distinctly different mastitis infections. As a consequence, the udder is inflamed, swollen, and blood may come out with milk which yields to reduction in milk yields....

Livestock including cows, sheep and goats do not come to heat due to lack of hormones and proper nutrition. Inductions of heat by chemical hormone is costly, and their residues can be seen in milk and meat, which can be hazardous. Livestock can be induced to heat by phytohormones. There...

The initiative is located in Central India, encompassing the Vidarbha District and the adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Dietary-based anemia is a widespread problem, especially amongst young women. The area is facing an acute agrarian crisis. One of its causes is climate change and the increasingly unpredictable monsoon...

The mission of the Voluntary Association of Agricultural General Development Health and Reconstruction Alliance in India (VAAGDHARA) is to create and nurture vibrant institutions of poor and tribal peoples in Western India so that they have sustainable livelihoods through scientific, indigenous and appropriate knowledge and technologies and their children are well educated...

Chronic diarrhoea in grazing animals is common in tropical livestock. Infection by bacteria and virus lead to diarrhoea. Use of antibiotics is costly and has residual effects through milk and meat. The traditional use of Chebulic myrobalan (Terminali chebula) along with curd from cow or goat milk is an effective...

Cardamom root grub (Basilepta fulvicorne: Chrysomelidae) is a major pest damaging roots of small cardamom (Elettariacardamomum Maton) causing 29 to 66 percent crop loss under various levels of infestation. Chemical control with agrochemicals viz. Chlorpyrifos and Phorate, though help in managing the pest, repeated application of such chemicals is deleterious to...

This volume provides an interdisciplinary collection of studies that cover the trends and issues related to agricultural productivity and availability, food and nutrition security, and sustainability in India. The book discusses a broad range of vital issues concerning the production and consumption of food during the era of climate change,...

The initiative is located in the Chittoor district in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With a tropical climate, Chittoor is one of the most drought prone districts in the country, a problem exacerbated by depletion of natural resources, global warming, increasing population pressure, pollution, loss...

The initiative is located on the Deccan Plateau of India. The climate is semi-arid in the north but tropical elsewhere. The majority of the farming population own less than one hectare of land and live and work in fragile environments, with little capital for investment and few off-farm employment opportunities....

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an additional challenge for the social-ecological resilience of the fisheries of Pulicat, India’s second largest lagoon. Pulicat, India’s second largest lagoon, which straddles the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast of south India, covers a maximum area of 750 sq km and...

This study, in collaboration with the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), provides an overview of the current state of sustainable agriculture practices and systems (SAPSs) in India. It aims to help policymakers, administrators, philanthropists, and others contribute to an evidence-based scale-up of SAPSs, which represent a vital alternative to conventional,...

This video tells the story of Sireesha - one of the thousands of women and men farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India, practicing agroecology in Farmer Field Schools facilitated by the Andhra Pradesh Community managed Natural Farming Programme and FAO. Through agroecology and FFS, Sireesha and her family improved their incomes; consume healthy and...

The leader of the Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) programme Vijay Kumar explains the Social Capital side of the story, and how women’s groups were a central part of the success of CMNF, now recognised worldwide as a model of agricultural transformation. The CMNF initiative has mobilised over a million...