Farmers with irrigated fields in Punjab and Haryana will start sowing cotton in a fortnight. Agriculture department officials estimate a 10% to 15% increase in acreage this season as cotton has become more lucrative than paddy, basmati and pulses. Government's paddy procuring agencies and basmati exporters don't think that the staple's production will take a hit. "We estimate the area under cotton across the country to increase by 15% and prices will...

Two villages in Uttar Pradesh have reversed the trend of migration by digging six kilometres of channels to bring water to drought-hit farms Call it the fallout of seven years of severe drought or government inaction, a silent revolution is brewing in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Communities are getting united and digging channels to bring water from government canals to their fields. Some are volunteering labour, while those belonging to...

Indian agriculture needs Rs 1,08,000 crore to fight climate change in the next five years to ensure food for all at a reasonable price by 2020. To prevent food catastrophe, the agriculture ministry has asked the funds for implementing National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture under the Prime Minister's National Action Plan on Climate Change. Over 60% of the money will be spent on developing new technologies, crop varieties and new practices...

There is a silver lining to the drought that hit India in 2009-10. Although it sapped the country's growth, it led to an almost doubling of physical assets created under the government's flagship rural employment scheme that year. The drought of 2009-10 was the worst that the country had faced in 17 years. As regular jobs in the farm sector dried up, more people sought work under the Mahatma Gandhi National...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) is bringing about a silent revolution in rural areas in this drought-prone district. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the programme in a remote village, Bandlapalli, in Anantapur district on February 2, 2006. Since then, the scheme has been providing employment to rural youth and checking migration from the district. About 700 residents in Malakavaripalli thanda in Tumula village panchayat in...