Farmers across the southwest belt of Haryana and northern Rajasthan have this year sown cotton on a large scale moving away from paddy, the traditional crop in this region. Due to the unavailability of canal water in certain areas in this region, farmers have also moved from sowing Bt cotton to desi (local) cotton which requires less water. The trend has largely been seen in the districts of Fatehabad, Bhiwani,...

The world's first electronic book on agriculture, The Agronomy and Economy of Important Tree Crops of the Developing World, compiled by K P Prabhakaran Nair, has been chosen to be kept in the British Library in London and the Congressional State Library in Washington. The Elsevier Academic Press-Macmillan combined, a major publisher in science, had commissioned Professor K P Prabhakaran Nair to compile the electronic book, which took him nearly five...

A crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areas IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in...

Crop insurance claims settlement has crossed Rs. 15,500 crore mark, benefitting over 4 crore farmers in the country. Crop insurance claims worth Rs. 15,521 crore have been settled as on 24.06.2010. With Rs. 3041 crore, Gujarat is on the top followed by Andhra Pradesh (Rs.2600 crore), Maharashtra (Rs. 1481 crore), Karnataka (Rs. 1406 crore) and Bihar Rs. (1236 crore). From Rabi 1999-2000 to Kharif 2009, 4.27 crore farmers have benefitted...

India’s vital monsoon rains revived in the soybean-growing central region on Thursday, after a two-week lag that reduced June rainfall to 16% below normal, the second lowest in 15 years. Heavy showers in the central Madhya Pradesh state would accelerate soybean planting in the world’s top importer of edible oils and ease growing nervousness about monsoon rains. The weather office reaffirmed its prediction of a normal monsoon this year, in line with...