'Desertifying' India is losing more than 30,000 hectares of arable land each year, threatening food security for its teeming millions. Already 10,000 farmers commit suicide each year. It is time to act. SAROSH BANA reports
Can traditional water-harvesting systems teach us how to solve contemporary water problems? Michael Kenneth Cowan says we have a lot to learn from the ancient and troubled ecology of the Middle East