-Deccan Chronicle Kochi (Kerala): The man who started the first hi-tech farm in Kerala is perhaps closer to achieving his dream of helping the state become self-reliant in vegetable Cultivation. Shivdas B. Menon, who quit a plush corporate job some 25 years ago to set up a business in agriculture technology here, believes that in another two to three years, Malayalis will be able to celebrate Onam with safe-to-eat vegetables grown...

-PTI Chandigarh: The illegal practice of burning paddy stubble has been going on unabated in some parts of Punjab and Haryana despite a government ban on it causing air pollution and health-related issues, agri-experts said. According to Vice Chancellor of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Dr B S Dhillon, stubble burning is causing multiple problems that include affecting the soil health, besides causing environmental pollution. "Hazy weather was witnessed recently which could have...

-The Hindu NALGONDA - THOTAPALLI (KARIMNAGAR DT) (Telengana): Nearly 330 ryots end lives since September 20. Already in debts, the delayed monsoon forced the 28-year-old Janganaboina Paramesh to sow cotton seed twice but they did not sprout due to extended dry spell. As the tragedy of farmers committing suicide due to crop failure stares the five-month-old Telangana government, the gruesome tales continue to haunt villages across the State. Nearly 330 farmers were...

-Economic and Political Weekly One knows who will suffer if the Narendra Modi government succeeds in weakening MGNREGA. The largest public employment programme the world has ever seen is in trouble. In 2013-14, 74 million individuals in 48 million households in rural India were employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme (or MGNREGA as it is called), with each household on average finding work for 46 days. This...

-The Indian Express Rajkot (Gujarat): Even as the Met department said that cyclonic storm Nilofar may not hit Kutch and Saurashtra coasts with the ferocity feared earlier, the forecast of rain and gusty winds have cultivators of groundnut and cotton worried. Saurashtra produces around 90 per cent of groundnut and around 60 per cent of cotton of the state. Farmers fear that the cyclone may damage to the twin cash crops. These...