-The Tribune With policy-backing, subsidies and availability of easy credit, farmers are being pushed to buy more machines. Punjab has five times more tractors than required. As more technological gadgets and machines are promoted, farmers are increasingly sucked into a debt cycle, while equipment manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank. At a time when farmers across the world are struggling to recover their cost of production, an Oxfam report...

-The New Indian Express The steep fluctuation of prices in a crop whose consumption and cultivation cycles are well documented speaks volumes about the patchy intervention measures taken over the years. The retail price of tomato has hit a high of Rs 100 per kg in Tamil Nadu just a couple of months after prices dropped to as low as Rs 2 per kg. There were reports from across the state about...

-The Tribune Experts urge the government to be cautious on wheat export, suggest an upper cap, say traders dictating markets New Delhi: Wheat production in the country is down due to “early summers”, the government’s procurement has reduced and the prices of ‘atta’ and byproducts like bread, rusks and biscuits are rising by the day. While the government is calling increasing exports as “beneficial” for farmers, experts are advocating “caution”, including imposing...

-The Tribune Chance discovery of ‘sona moti’-- * Known as “Sona Moti”, the wheat variety has low gluten and glycemic content, but high folic acid and nutritional value * This variety is a chance discovery after its seeds were given as “prasad” to Jalalabad-based farmer Virender Mohan Nagpal by Pingalwara in 2014 Chandigarh: An ancient wheat variety, grown in Punjab thousands of years ago, is once again making waves for its high nutritional value....

-The New Indian Express Poultry farming of this protein-rich black chicken paying rich dividends, reports Anuraag Singh MADHYA PRADESH: In many parts of the country, the colour black has been considered inauspicious. But in the forests of western Madhya Pradesh’s tribal-dominated Bheelanchal region, the same colour is ushering in fortune and prosperity in the lives of people who were once forced to work as labourers in adjoining Gujarat. Welcome to Jhabua, Alirajpur and...