A high-level working group of the Government of India has approved the idea of outbound foreign direct investment by Indians in the production of pulses and oilseeds aimed at meeting domestic demand. This is not a new idea. Since arable land in India is fast shrinking and efforts to lift the output of pulses and oilseeds, besides some other essential commodities, are not bearing fruit, investing in land elsewhere for...

In a bid to stall the contentious Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, the Trinamool Congress has demanded a detailed discussion in the Lok Sabha before the legislation and the accompanying Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill are taken up for consideration in the winter session. The Trinamool Congress, which has expressed major reservations on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, put forward this demand at a meeting of Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee (BAC) on...

All horticultural crops will be branded under common logo Agri and horticultural planting material that have been developed by the associate institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will be branded and will come with a logo soon. If all goes as planned, all horticultural crops will be initially branded under a logo, which has been acquired by Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR), Bangalore. The Bangalore-based institute, which is...

There is a shortage of non-Bt seeds, and traditional seeds are contaminated Tests on cotton seeds available in the market show that they are contaminated Agriculture officials confirm the near absence of traditional variety of cotton seeds Karnataka may soon fall off the organic cotton map owing to shortage of non-Bt cotton seeds and contamination of traditional seeds. As a result, a major organic cotton belt such as H.D. Kote in Mysore district may...

West Bengal's farmers switched to new scientific material called 'Poly Mulching' (made out of plastic) to protect crops. The North Bengal region has got some highly fertile agricultural land. But weeds, lack of proper sunlight, heavy downpour, soil erosion, seed germination and cold weather conditions often result in harming the crops and ultimately curtailing agricultural production. However, to protect crops from such problems, farmers have now found a suitable way by using...