Surinder Sud

Wakeup call on biodiversity: Degradation poses ecological, economic risks

India's revised NBS-AP has done well to set 23 well-advised targets conforming to various global biodiversity-related conventions

Farm to fork goes digital: Indian agri on the cusp of a tech revolution

Indian farmers have shown their ability and, more so, willingness to embrace new technology

Sustaining the cotton revolution is vital for the textile sector's growth

Urgent measures are imperative to rejuvenate the cotton revolution through inducting new genetically engineered seeds and modern technology

Food, fuel, and timber: How bamboo is becoming 'green gold' for farmers

Bamboo cultivation with modern agronomic practices is proving more rewarding than many other crops, including the highly lucrative ones like sugarcane and cotton

Benefits of the domestic 'silk route'

Creating a market for the byproducts of sericulture would hugely benefit silk farmers, as also other stakeholders in the silk sector

Growing & sustaining a liquid asset

Rainwater conservation needs planning on a geographically wider scale, keeping in view the entire watersheds, which can span administrative blocks, districts, or states

The success story of fish farming

Composite fish farming has, over the years, witnessed some major modifications. One of its notable new versions is vertical fish culture

The increasing profitability of apiculture

Interestingly, while India's honey output has increased since 2005-06 by nearly 240 per cent, exports have bounced by over 260 per cent

Sheep and goats need meaty ideas

The domestic consumption of both mutton (sheep meat) and chevon (goat meat) is also steadily increasing despite their prices being far higher than the meat of chickens, buffaloes, and pigs

Finding the right policy for edible oil

The strategy mooted by the finance minister to attain atmanirbharta in edible oilseeds like mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower involves research on high-yielding crop varieties

Survival and growth of FPOs

The advantages of the FPOs have been borne out and quantified by a study conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in 2020-21 and 2021-22

The groundwater reality

The Assessment Report, put together by the Central Ground Water Board with inputs from states, reckons the total water recharge in 2023 to be around 449.53 billion cubic metres

Not missing either the woods or the trees

Vast untapped potential must be gainfully harnessed to achieve environmental goals and derive potential economic benefits from agro-forestry

Land leasing needs a sound law

The concept of imposing limits on land ownership and acquiring surplus land for allocation to landless people, in fact, seldom served its intended objective of equitable distribution of farmland

The unfinished job of farm mechanisation

The current level of farm mechanisation in India, reckoned officially at 47 per cent, is far lower than the 60 per cent in China and 75 per cent in Brazil

Animal husbandry: Success and constraints

Unsurprisingly, India now leads the world in milk production. In fact, it replaced the US as the world's largest milk producer way back in 1998

The growing popularity of vegan foods

Indian consumers, by and large, are cost-conscious. At present, most vegan products are priced higher than the non-vegetarian foods they are meant to replace

Incentivise eco-friendly fertilisers

Consumer demand for the products grown without the use of toxic chemicals is steadily climbing

Gender discrimination in farms

Growing rural-to-urban migration by men was leading to "feminisation" of the agriculture sector

A G20 opportunity for millets

While the requirements for plant-based food, feed, fuel, and fibre are growing rapidly, the farm sector's capacity to satisfy these needs is getting constrained