The fraught issue of introduction of Bt Brinjal has been shelved but all eyes are now set on the controversial Seed Bill 2010, likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 26. The bill aims to regulate the quality of seeds for sale, import and export and to facilitate production and supply of seeds of quality, but fails to address a crucial issue — seed pricing....

With the continuous high prices of pulses a major worry, the Centre has reoriented its strategy from this kharif season, with farmers being given incentives to go for mechanisation through custom hiring of tractors, ridge and furrow planters, and Rotavators (rotary tillers). Farmers are also being encouraged to take up inter-cropping, adoption of new technologies, integrated nutrient management, better seeds, and drip and sprinkler irrigation. Farmers in 60,000 identified villages in major...

Small and marginal farmers from SC and ST communities are going to raise horticulture crops, mainly cashew nut on assigned lands over about 4,000 acres, 1,000 acres in agency areas, under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NR-EGS) in East Godavari. Horticulture authorities target to raise several horticulture crops on government assigned lands in the possession of small and marginal farmers to help them improve their sources of earnings. They are...

Greenpeace, the non-governmental organisation, has claimed that farmers get more income if they cultivate organic cotton instead of Bt cotton. The NGO, which conducted a survey in three top cotton growing districts of Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh, said that the net income of organic cotton farmers is Rs 6,000 an acre, while Bt cotton farmers earned only Rs 2,000. “This is due to the higher cost of pesticides. Though...

Acknowledging the expertise of Punjabi farmers in making the state the “food bowl of the country”, Ethiopia now wants them to replicate this success in their country. Only 43 per cent of the total land mass of the country was currently under cultivation and the African country has invited farmers to lease huge tracts of arable land in various parts of the country and turn them into green lush fields....