-The Hindu Business Line Rising pest attacks are mounting pressure on cotton farmers even as prices play truant. Rajeshbhai Patel is not amused. The farmer in Kadi, northern Gujarat grew cotton on four bigha in this year’s kharif season, instead of 11 in 2016. He had reduced the acreage fearing increasing costs owing to pests attacks. But as cotton prices rule at unusually high levels in the ongoing harvest season, he...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday favoured a comprehensive national policy to protect farmers, many of whom have committed suicide due to rising debt and crop failures caused by natural calamities, terming it a "sensitive" matter of public interest and human rights. "It is a sensitive matter of larger public interest and human rights which covers the entire country," a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V...

-PTI AHMEDABAD: A differently-abled farmer from Gujarat's arid Banaskantha district has inspired several others to make the best use of their farmland by planting pomegranate. Genabhai Patel (52), a pomegranate farmer from Sarkari Goliya village in Lakhani taluka of the district, has polio in both legs but he did not let it become a hurdle. Instead, he experimented with farm practices involving drip irrigation to produce pomegranate in the highly arid and...

-The Hindu Business Line Incentivises exports by offering up to 25 per cent of the overall transport cost Ahmedabad: Facing assembly elections later this year, the Gujarat government on Monday announced financial assistance to the farmers growing potato and tomato in the form of transport assistance for exports. The move is seen as a step directed to please a large section of potato and tomato growing farmers. Announcing the decision, the deputy chief...

Against the backdrop of drought that affected most states in the past 2 years, it is essential to take a look at a report on improving water governance in the country, which was submitted to the Ministry of Water Resources in July, 2016. That report, which was prepared by the Committee on Restructuring the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the chairpersonship of Dr. Mihir...