-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Agriculture) The two-day National Conference on Agriculture for Kharif Campaign has come out with detailed strategy for maximising crop production during the coming kharif season. The focus will be on ensuring timely availability of fertilizers and quality seed and also sufficient credit to farmers. Based on inputs from States and the Fertilizer Ministry, it is established that sufficient quantities of fertilizers and seeds are available in...

-The Hindu Business Line The risk of water availability is a painful reality in south Asian agriculture including India. Any deviation from the monsoon causes problems for the farm community and poses threat to food security in the region. The variability in precipitation in India has actually increased in recent years. While comparing the variability of precipitation (given by standard deviation) between two phases, 1950-75 and 1976-2010, in two geographically dispersed districts...

-Deccan Herald Behind all the ostentation, glitz and glamour of the recently concluded mega ‘Progressive Agriculture Summit' in Punjab lies the harsh reality of farmer suicides and the burgeoning agrarian crisis that this border state reels under. A state government commissioned study conducted by three prominent universities in Punjab lay bare the magnitude of the crisis. On an average estimate, three persons committed suicide every two days in last one decade in...

-The Hindu In the case of technologies with benefits and risks, it is important to have regulatory mechanisms which can help analyse them in an impartial manner It is 61 years since the beginning of new genetics based on the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. It is also 31 years since the production of transgenic plants. The first patent for a living organism went to Dr. Anand...

-The United Nations The international fish trade is breaking records, the United Nations today reported, but benefits from the trade are not trickling down to the small-scale fishing communities which make up the majority of the sector's global workforce. "The proportion of fish production being traded internationally is significant, at around 37 per cent in 2013," said Audun Lem, Chief of UN Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) Products, Trade and Marketing Branch....