A west Champaran-based sugar firm, whose managing director is the son-in-law of Sahaswan (UP) BSP MLA D P Yadav, is under probe for taking agricultural loans in the names of 2,055 Bagaha farmers an
Floods in Pakistan have damaged at least 880,000 hectares of standing crops, including rice, maize, cotton, sugar cane, fruit orchards and vegetables, which represent about 3.7 percent of total nat
Brazil claims to have clamped down on slash and burn tactics, slave labour and links to deforestation as it seeks to gain foothold in Europe’s lucrative biofuels market.
Sugarcane is a high water-requiring (with an average of 20 megalitres of water/ha) crop and 80% of its water requirement is met through groundwater. The Central Ground Water Board has estimated that only 162 billion cubic metres (BCM)/yr of groundwater is available for future irrigation, out of which around 40 BCM/yr is available in the sugar-producing states. Sugarcane cultivation in 5.0 million ha area will require about 100 BCM of water/yr.
Existing targets for biofuels and other forms of bioenergy are based on flawed carbon accounting and should be revised downwards, a draft report by a panel of 19 top European scientists showed.
With the rapid growth of biofuel production and consumption and the proliferation of policy decisions supporting this expansion, concerns about the biofuel sector’s environmental and social impacts are increasing.
Already feeling the pinch of food insecurity, the agriculture sector of Pakistan has to face a loss of Rs 67 billion, as recent monsoon flooding has damaged standing crops in most of Lower Sindh.
