Deceptive intervention for millets

By Biju Negi
12 Jul 2011

Since time immemorial farmers of Uttarakhand have been growing several nutritious varieties of millets without using any external or chemical inputs. But now the government, under influence of agri-business, is making them dependent on harmful chemicals and costly commercial seeds.

This is organic, officially organic Uttarakhand, and the state Agriculture Department is having ‘minikits’ of chemical fertilizers and micro-nutrients distributed free to its small farmers. Quietly, almost secretly!
These free minikits are part of the “Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion (INSIMP)”, beginning current kharif season in the six districts of Uttarakhand – Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Almora.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1658

Carbon Crunching

By Sudhirendar Sharma
06 Jul 2011

The World Bank has signed an agreement with the state government of Himachal Pradesh for the largest carbon revenue project. However, the conditions of the agreement indicate that instead of putting the carbon revenue mechanism to the competitive advantage of the stakeholders, such projects continue to serve the interest of the clients.

Tucked up in the middle Himalayas, farmers in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh will crunch atmospheric carbon to help rid the Spaniards of their climate woes. In the next two decades, 839,582 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents are likely to be sequestered in over 4,000 hectares of variedly degraded agriculture and forest land in the state.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1656&idFor=1656

Increasing prosperity, disappearing girls

By Pandurang Hegde
30 Jun 2011


Contrary to popularly held opinion, the female to male ratio is on decline despite continuous economic growth in India. Curiously, the backward regions with poor education seem to be doing better on child sex ratio in comparison to the better-off areas.

The provisional Census figures released recently brought relief to experts as they saw the marginal decline in the rate of population growth. This euphoria is short lived as the dissection of the census data revealed a shocking feature of declining child sex ratios (CSR). Though there was marginal improvement in the adult sex ratio, it was obvious that the girls were missing from the populations not only in the northern regions, but also in new areas including in the prosperous urban regions of the country.

read more @: http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1655