Easy access to agro-chemicals in Sri Lanka blamed for public health scare.

In Sri Lanka, organic farmers draw inspiration from endemic practices such as home gardens or analog forestry, and have also adapted ‘imported’ ideas, such as zero-budget farming from India.

To read more click on to the following URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/vignettes-sri-lankas-cloud-country

Reeling under routine 12-hour power cuts daily, Nepal has launched an ambitious multibillion rupees initiative to add 2,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2016. Addressing the country’s Parliament on March 23, Bharat Mohan Adhikary Deputy Prime Minister who also holds the finance and energy portfolios, declared the next four-and-a-half years as a period of “energy emergency”.

Read More - http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/nepal-declares-energy-emergency

Micro-financed solar energy systems light up Bangladesh’s rural areas.

To know more click on to the following URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/2403

Across the Kathmandu valley one encounters stone water spouts beautifully carved in the form of water deities - a crocodile head representing the carrier of the Goddess Ganga, a serpent head. The divinely hitis also serve a more earthly purpose-a vital source of drinking water to the valley's parched populace.

Know More - http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/389/20463/20486

A Consumer movement is catching on in Nepal.Communities are extending the grid to villages.This threatens to undo the effort put in small-scale off-grid power generation to fight poverty. How can Nepal harmonize the two initiatives ?

Read More - http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/when-villages-plug

This Down To Earth report on how communities in Nepal have demanded their right to energy.  It provides lessons for countries like India, keen on building decentralised systems and reinventing energy futures.

A special report on the succesful micro-financed solar energy systems programme by Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh's rural areas. This is perhaps worlds's fastest growing rural renewable energy programme managed by Grameen Shakti with an extensive on-the-ground presence and service network of 1,159 offices staffed by 8,975 employees across the country.

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