-The Indian Express Decentralised industrialisation, entrepreneurship from below have been absent in states that have seen recent unrest among agrarian communities. “The soil here is very saline with electrical conductivity value of 9. We can grow only chloride-loving crops like coconut and the MR-2 variety of mulberry.” That was Tamil Selvi, recently telling this correspondent about the 5.75-acre land farmed by her father Natarajan Gounder at Velayuthagoundanpudur, a small village around 25...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: India has sought the cooperation of fellow BRICS members — Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa — to help meet the country’s production shortfall in pulses and oilseeds. Agriculture Ministers from BRICS countries have agreed to promote production of pulses in their respective countries and raise awareness about its nutritional aspects, according to the joint declaration adopted at the end of their meeting in New Delhi,...

-Livemint.com Radha Mohan Singh says the monsoon this year has been well distributed with 5.3 million hectare more area planted that could see a record production of foodgrains New Delhi: After two years of drought and declining crop production, a record foodgrain production on the back of a well distributed monsoon is expected in 2016-17, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Thursday. While pulses production could touch 22 million tonnes, up...

-Business Standard The efficacy of farm debt waivers is ambiguous, but it has proved to be a potent potent weapon in the run-up to elections With elections round the corner in agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party’s Punjab chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal are trying to woo farmers of the two states with promises of farm...

-The New Indian Express KOCHI: Keeping its promise to promote organic farming and paddy cultivation in the State, the Agriculture Department has initiated steps to carry out upland paddy cultivation in 2,560 hectares in the 2016-17 fiscal year. According to officials, more than one lakh hectares of cultivable land is lying barren in the State. “Currently, we are importing vegetables and rice from the other states to meet our demand, at a...