-The Hindu COIMBATORE (Tamil Nadu): As it does every year, this time too the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University gave away awards to five select Farmers from different parts of the State in recognition of their innovation and progressive methods followed in agriculture. Instituted by the university, the Velanmai Chemmal Awards are sponsored by C.R.I. Pumps. This year's achievers included G. Mayilsamy from Sulur Kaliapuram, Coimbatore, for his contribution to seed and bio-fertilizer...

-The Hindu Drop attributed to devastation by three successive cyclones ELURU (Andhra Pradesh): West Godavari district registered a sharp decline in the yield of paddy in kharif. The trend is attributed to the extensive damage caused by a series of three cyclones, one after the other. The crop cutting experiments undertaken by the Agriculture Department estimated the yield to be around 8.67 lakh tonnes, against the initial expectations of 12.36 lakh tonnes....

-Deccan Herald In the past seven years around 3.2 crore Farmers have abandoned farming and taken up menial jobs in the cities. At a time when change is the buzzword on the political landscape, when cities are changing, and the villages are no longer what they used to be; when incomes are rising for an educated few, and when the bottom of the pyramid - those below the poverty line -- are...

-Down to Earth G Nammalvar was one of a kind, a messiah of Farmers who was revered as a saint-teacher by his followers. He was an agriculture scientist, a graduate of Annamalai University, who left a government job at the research station at Kovilpatti when he realised that he could do nothing for the resource-poor Farmers who depend on rains to cultivate their parched land. Thus began an odyssey of half...

-The Hindu What is it that spurs an individual to quit a Government job and take up farming as a full time profession? Or why does an MBA student be more interested to become a full time farmer than work in a company? "If the annual agriculture income is more than a salaried income, youngsters will take the plunge into it. Unlike the old adage that agriculture comprises only old people into...