-The New Indian Express CHENNAI: In the quiet corners of the State, farmers of five panchayats have been silently revolutionising pulse farming. Under ‘Pulse Panchayat’, an MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) initiative, over 1000 farmers in Pudukkotai have managed to achieve a 60% increase in the yield and also increasing the land under pulses cultivation in the three years since the project was started in 2013, the farmers said. What was first started...
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Farmers opting for pulses over cotton -Himanshu Kaushik
-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: With the prices of tur dal and other pulses skyrocketing, to between Rs 155 and Rs 180 a kg, farmers in the state are increasingly choosing to sowing pulses. The area sown with tur, urad and other pulses in the state has risen by 77% from last year. The area sown with pulses was 5.81 lakh hectares this year, while this number was 3.28 lakh ha...
More »25 years of change: Why India’s farm sector needs a new deal -Zia Haq and Gaurav Choudhury
-Hindustan Times New Delhi: In chasing higher and higher GDP growth rates, India tends to gloss over two vital facts. One, farm growth cuts poverty twice as fast as industrial growth. Two, a 1% rise in agricultural output raises industrial production by 0.5% and national income by 0.7%, according to one calculation. In other words, the country’s fortunes are structurally tied to its farmers. Two-thirds of Indians rely on a farm-based income....
More »Dryland Farming: Bringing watershed management back to the policy agenda -Pravesh Sharma
-The Indian Express Price and technology-led incentives alone will not help boost pulses and oilseeds production in the country. Indian agriculture is governed by an impossible trinity or “trilemma” that requires it to meet three simultaneous objectives — global competitiveness, social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability — each often at odds with the other two. Official policy has largely tilted towards supporting the first two goals, with token, if not grudging, acknowledgement of...
More »India loses 15-25 per cent potential crop output due to pests, weeds, diseases
-ANI Chairman Standing Committee of Parliament on Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Hukmdev Narayan Yadav called for concerted efforts to forge an R and D-led strategy to save the loss of crops due to pests, weeds and diseases. An estimated 15-25 percent of potential crop production is lost due this menace at a time when India needs not only to raise production but also ensure food security and nutrition for its growing consumption...
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