-The Times of India MADURAI: A Madurai-based farmer has managed to produce the highest yield in paddy by combining organic and chemical fertilisers, even as agriculture is undergoing the odds due to erratic rains. C Sethumathavan from Chinnaelanthaikulam produced the yield of 24 tonnes per hectare paddy in the 2013 - 14 kuruvai season. Hailing from a traditional agriculture family, Sethumathavan had cultivated paddy on his 10 acres farm. But he was...

-The Business Standard   Of the 46 projects, some have been scaled up after completion of pilot projects Chennai: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has supported 46 innovative projects, through its Nabard-SDC Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), as on February 2014. The fund was set up jointly with the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). These projects were sponsored so as to create more jobs in the rural areas...

-The Telegraph   Paddy may not be the climate culprit that the world is making it out to be Agricultural scientist Pratap Bhattacharyya may have found a remarkable piece of evidence that absolves swathes of paddy fields stretching over millions of hectares of a climate crime. On the contrary, he believes that rice is doing its bit for the environment. A study by Bhattacharyya and his colleagues at the Cuttack-based Central Rice Research Institute...

-The Hindu KANHANGAD, Kerala: The Akshara Purusha Swayam Sahaya Sangham, a self-help group here, once again scripted a success story by reaping a rich harvest of sweet potatoes from a barren paddy field at Kushal Nagar. A six-member team under the self-group reaped nearly 60 quintals of sweet potatoes from a 1.5-acre paddy field that lay barren for years. Having reaped a rich harvest of vegetables a few months ago, the team this...

-The Business Standard (Capital Market) The Government is promoting organic farming through various schemes like National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH), National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility (NPMSH&F), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and also Network Project on Organic Farming of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Under NPOF scheme, assistance upto 25% and 33% of...