-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...

-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court  - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...

-The Times of India PUNE: Two farmers were killed, one of them in police firing, while three policemen were injured and an unspecified number of vehicles were either damaged or burnt after an agitation by sugarcane farmers for higher prices for their crop turned violent in western Maharashtra on Monday. Chandrakant Nalawade, a small farmer from Vasagade village in Sangli, was killed when police opened fire to control the agitating farmers after...

-Outlook Hyderabad: Forty-four people were killed and a massive damage was caused to crops in Andhra Pradesh due to cyclone 'Nilam', Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said today. Reddy, who interacted with district collectors of all the affected districts via video conferencing at the state secretariat, said orders have been issued for paying the ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh under various schemes to the families of the deceased, a CMO press...

Since early November, Delhi and large parts of North India have been enveloped in a thick, grey smog, sparking concerns and a debate on what is leading to the rising levels of air pollution. A January 2012 paper by Ridhima Gupta from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi is drawing linkages between the quality of air in the capital and agricultural practices during harvest season on farms in the neighbouring state...