-Down to Earth   It was early June. Jaspal Ram of Lehra Turkot in district Bathinda of Punjab was busy in his field putting gunny bags filled with mud on a plank of wood trailing his tractor. After sometime, he adds another row of gunny bags to add weight. On being asked what he was doing, Jaspal replies, "I'm levelling my field. A lot of water is lost if the paddy fields...

-NDTV Hyderabad: The first month of monsoon has turned out to be the worst in years for Farmers, especially in coastal Andhra Pradesh that has had very little rain because of a truant southwest monsoon. Hardly 30 per cent sowing has been done so far and with no rains, even that has dried up. Consumers are bound to be left high and dry with food prices rising steeply. We met Kittappa,...

-Deccan Chronicle Thrissur (Kerala): Planting paddy on large swathes in expectation of copious rains and abundant harvests during Thiruvathira Njattuvela, according to conventional wisdom, between June 21 and July 4, has been a practice in Kerala. But try telling this to GenNext and you will draw a blank. The story is that the Zamorin of Malabar once remarked: "Aliens may take away our spices and other valuable crops but they cannot...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: To preserve indigenous seed varieties and also promote organic farming, the state bio-diversity board will soon open over 110 seed banks across the two states. With the requisite budgets sanctioned for this pilot project, the board is all set to start the programme in the coming weeks. The concept is inspired by the activities of a Karnataka-based NGO which was able to do the same in a...

-The Financial Express Unless we get it right on the markets front, including opening up of exports, Farmers cannot get their full due One of the key objectives of agricultural price policy in India is to ensure that agriculture remains a remunerative occupation so that Farmers are incentivised to adopt modern technologies that help raise productivity and overall production of various crops in the country broadly in line with the emerging demand...