-The Business Standard This is happening especially with small and marginal farms Bhopal: In contrast to the tall claims of achieving double digit growth in agriculture sector National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) today said agriculture in Madhya Pradesh is perceived to be increasingly unviable owing to yield and price risks as well as lack of risk mitigation mechanism. This is happening especially with small and marginal farms. Interestingly, government...

-The Hindu COIMBATORE (Tamil Nadu): As it does every year, this time too the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University gave away awards to five select farmers from different parts of the State in recognition of their innovation and progressive methods followed in agriculture. Instituted by the university, the Velanmai Chemmal Awards are sponsored by C.R.I. Pumps. This year's achievers included G. Mayilsamy from Sulur Kaliapuram, Coimbatore, for his contribution to seed and bio-fertilizer...

-The New Indian Express   Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global hunger. The index is calculated as an average of three indices-undernourishment, underweight children and low child mortality rate-and is measured on a...

-The Hindu Apprehensions of various sections must be allayed: M.S. Swaminathan UDHAGAMANDALAM (Tamil Nadu): In matters relating to genetically modified (GM) food crops, the government should ‘hasten cautiously,' said eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan. He was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the Wheat Breeding Research Station of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Wellington, near here, on Tuesday. When asked about differences within the government over conducting field trials of GM...

-IANS A small sugarcane farmer in western Maharashtra, Bhau Kadam (name changed) and his family, own about three hectares of land. He has two sons who are both graduates and work in Pune. When I asked him why he did not make his sons farmers, he says that farming is hard work, is non-remunerative and it is difficult to get labour. Besides he also thinks that farming is not glamorous, a farmer's...