-The Financial Express For most consumers, ‘organic’ is probably a code for ‘safe’ or ‘residue-free’, not necessarily produce grown without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. But marketers use the tag to tap into a seam of fear in some urban parents who are so anxious about health that they are willing to pay for advertising that spells ‘well-being’. A brand of ‘organic’ jaggery, for example, on the shelves of Reliance Fresh stores...

For those who asked why the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states hit the streets during June and July this year, the report prepared by the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income could be a ready reckoner. Prepared under the chairpersonship of Ashok Dalwai, the report on Doubling Farmers’ Income after studying the trends in crop income and cost associated with 23 crops, reveals a mixed picture across the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Seeking to protect farmers from price volatility by ensuring guaranteed price for their produce, the Centre will come out with a draft model law on contract farming this month. Once it is made public, stakeholders including farmers will be given 30 days to comment and give suggestions. A final 'model' Contract Farming Act is expected to be released in November after incorporating the suggestions. "The final model...

-The Hindu Fifty years since the Green Revolution, the architect of the reform highlights the crisis facing Indian agriculture today It is 11 years since agronomist M.S. Swaminathan handed over his recommendations for improving the state of agriculture in India to the former United Progressive Alliance government, at the height of the Vidarbha farmer suicides crisis, but they are still to be implemented. To address the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest across...

-The Times of India BENGALURU (Karnataka): If you own a piece of agriculture land and haven't bothered to take up cultivation for the past two years or so, either get a plough in or just lease it out to farming contractors. The Karnataka government has begun identifying fallow lands and issuing notices to farmers and land owners asking them to either take up cultivation or give such lands on contract, in tune...