Feature Article

At the behest of the Government of India, the three national commodity exchanges, set up a little over three years ago, were required to organise futures trades in all commodities, whether of agricultural origin or not, through electronic online trading systems. The authorities did not stop at that.

This paper attempts to analyse the determinants and impact of adoption of IPM practices in groundnut. This study is a part of a project "Assessment of Adoption and Impact of IPM in Rainfed Crops" funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

In recent years, one observes an increasing incidence of farmers' suicides. A relatively higher suicide among farmers is indicative of a larger malaise in agriculture.

This paper discusses various urban threats in the mega-cities of the developing countries and provides new insights into NCR planning and management. The mega cities in developing countries have been facing various economic, environmental and social threats. Further, the urban economy is not able to attract desired level of basic industries owing to weak infrastructural support.

Urbanization is an outcome of development process. The increase in infrastructure and basic services is lagging behind the increase in population and income in urban areas. In this context, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have to play a role in providing the required urban services. The ability of the ULBs to provide these services depends upon their fiscal performance.

The unprecedented mounting population pressure in the urban areas of India has brought the issue of efficient urban governance to the centre stage of policy planning. Large scale reforms are being ushered into the urban sector.

Urban water demand is rapidly growing in India due to high growth in urban population and rapid industrialization. Meeting this demand is a big challenge for the urban planners in India. Incidentally, the large urban areas are experiencing faster growth in population, and most of them are in arid and semi arid regions, which are naturally water-scarce.

This article discusses the acute and chronic health effects of pesticide exposure among Filipino rice farmers. Data were collected from 50 farmers during 2002 and 2003 using a semi-structured questionnaire to elicit demographic information, various aspects of farming life, types and extent of pesticide use, exposure means, and self-reported acute and chronic illness experiences.

The objective of the recently enacted Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act is to undo the effects of the historical injustice that has been suffere

This paper provides an overview of selected trends and conditions of ecosystem services, in particular, food production and impacts on the environment based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. It then describes outcomes for future ecosystem services under alternative development pathways, with a focus on tradeoffs between food security and the environment, such as implications for fertilizer use, and the role of biofuels.