Farmers across the southwest belt of Haryana and northern Rajasthan have this year sown cotton on a large scale moving away from paddy, the traditional crop in this region. Due to the unavailability of canal water in CERTain areas in this region, farmers have also moved from sowing Bt cotton to desi (local) cotton which requires less water. The trend has largely been seen in the districts of Fatehabad, Bhiwani,...

Weather scientists today pinned their hopes for a surge in the monsoon’s advance over central and northern India on a feeble low pressure system over the northwestern Bay of Bengal and on statistics. India has received 16 per cent rainfall, which is below normal during the first month of the season, and 31 of the country’s 81 water reservoirs are filled to less than 50 per cent of the normal capacity. But...

Since the advent of the Green Revolution popularised use of excessive irrigation and fertilisers in India in the 1960s, biodynamic farming, an advanced form of organic farming, had largely faded into oblivion. Biodynamic farming, a return to natural farming free from the use of pesticides and chemicals, is readying for a revival in Punjab, the hub of the Green Revolution in the country. While organic farming is basically a holistic management...

India’s vital monsoon rains revived in the soybean-growing central region on Thursday, after a two-week lag that reduced June rainfall to 16% below normal, the second lowest in 15 years. Heavy showers in the central Madhya Pradesh state would accelerate soybean planting in the world’s top importer of edible oils and ease growing nervousness about monsoon rains. The weather office reaffirmed its prediction of a normal monsoon this year, in line with...

In April, India’s Planning Commission accepted recommendations put forth by the so-called Tendulkar Committee on a new poverty headcount for the country. Constituted by the Planning Commission under economist Suresh D Tendulkar, the committee, after four years and a new methodology, arrived at a new figure for the number of Indians living below the poverty line: 37.2 percent, ten points higher than the previous official figure. With the government’s subsequent...