-The Business Standard Contrary to earlier claims, farm growth may be robust The projection by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) of robust agricultural growth of above five per cent and a consequential handsome rise in rural incomes comes as a silver lining to India's otherwise gloomy economic scene. The CACP's reckoning, based on a rigorous mathematical model, virtually discounts the agriculture ministry's kharif crop output estimates (called first advance...

-The Hindu Crop in 10,000 ha damaged due to poor rainfall and lack of irrigational facility PERAMBALUR: Maize cultivated in about 10,000 hectares in the district, especially in Veppanthatti taluk, has withered away due to failure of monsoon and absence of irrigational facility. As the 120-day duration crop, raised during the Adi Pattam, has suffered damage even before reaching the flowering stage, farmers are forced to use it as feed for livestock. Pinning...

-The Hindu     Toll from foot-and-mouth disease reaches 1,485, mostly in south Karnataka Bangalore: The steep death toll among cattle from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) could have been exacerbated by an unusually heavy rainfall this monsoon, even as an inefficient vaccination programme left thousands of animals vulnerable to the disease. While FMD (a viral infection affecting animals with ‘cloven hooves' such as cattle, deer and wild boar) is not fatal by itself, a secondary infection...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: North India is likely to heat up more than the southern parts of the country while the entire Indian subcontinent may see longer rainy seasons in second half of the century, the UN's climate body has predicted in its latest comprehensive document on climate change. The conclusion, showing variation in temperature and rainfall in South Asia, is part of the lengthy technical details of the United...

-The Economic Times KOLKATA: India's pulses harvest for the Kharif 2013 season has touched 7 million tonne (as compared to 5.9 million tonne in 2012 and, as per the latest report of Weather Watch Group in Agriculture Ministry, the acreage planted to pulses has touched 10.2 million hectares (as compared to 8.8. million hectares in 2012. Mr. Pravin Dongre, Chairman - India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) speaking about the kharif harvest...