Food security and organic farming can go hand in hand. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today gave a green signal to efforts under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture to promote green manuring and organic farming while talking about bringing in the Food Securtiy Act this year, settling the debate on high pesticide and chemical fertiliser use in Punjab and Haryana. He said his government is mulling to also bring urea,...

In a bonanza to the farming community, the government on Monday announced loans at interest rate of four per cent -- three per cent less than market rate -- for farmers who pay their dues in time and raised the credit target for farm sector by Rs 1 lakh crore. "The existing interest subvention scheme of providing short-term crop loans at seven per cent interest rate will continue during the 2011-12...

The sharp rise in food prices inflation will remain a major cause of concern as inflationary pressures on the domestic front are likely to be exacerbated by higher levels of global commodity prices, the Economic Survey has said. It also indicated that the political turmoil in the Middle East and the “easy money” policy being followed by developed nations trying to jump-start their own economies after the global recession of 2008-09...

Even as everyone is celebrating the bounce in the economy with a return to 8.5 per cent growth, the jury is out on the accuracy of the agricultural output numbers. The impressive 5.4 per cent agricultural growth rate number is suspect if one looks at recent trends in farm productivity and output. The agriculture ministry anticipates foodgrain output to grow by 6.4 per cent to 232 million tonnes in 2010-11....

They want State Government to exempt their farm produce from duty A group of Punjab-based farmers on Monday said they are going to grow pulses and OIlseeds on 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia and import their farm produce to India. “We will start cultivating 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia from September this year and plan to cultivate pulses, OIlseeds, sugarcane and maize which are always in short supply (in India),”...