Exceeding 235 million tonnes, it has been the highest since Independence India's food production crossed 235 million tonnes during 2010-11 as per the latest estimates and this is the highest since Independence, S. Ayyappan, Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said on Saturday. The previous highest production, at nearly 233 million tonnes, was achieved in 2008-09, while the output declined to around 218 million tonnes during 2009-10, he said interacting...

India still has a long way to go in achieving food and nutritional security, albeit the country has achieved record production with 5.4% growth in agriculture and allied sector. This was corroborated by Sharad Pawar, minister of agriculture and food processing, while addressing the National Conference on Agriculture for Kharif Campaign-2011 in New Delhi recently. "Record production with 235.88 Mt of foodgrains in 2010-2011 should not lead to complacency as we...

The Centre will come up with a ‘Look East’ policy to boost kharif staple rice production in eastern states. A national-level conference scheduled to be held in New Delhi on April 6-7 will formulate strategies to maximise summer-sown crop output by hiking area and production in eastern states, which have more irrigated, alluvial soil and higher water table than those in the northwest.   “The focus will be on rice and introduction...

In Kerala, where paddy cultivation is going out of favour because of labour problems and high costs, the novel System of Rice Intensification’ (SRI) has shown the potential to rehabilitate this crop. This innovative technique ensures substantially higher productivity and lower input use. The SRI system has, in fact, proved its utility in many other regions as well, spanning Sikkim in the north-east to Tamil Nadu in the south. The environment-friendly SRI...

Over 10 lakh farmers in the state have already taken up organic farming as a result of some aggressive promotion by the agriculture department. Of the nearly 6.5 lakh hectares under organic cultivation, 2.77 lakh have been certified and farmers have been branding their produce as organic produce. Some 2.14 lakh farmers are managing certified organic land and the number is expected to go up as more and more land gets...