-The Indian Express Agriculture education is in a poor state. ICAR must be revamped Although autarky on Indian farms is a distant dream, as the 71st year of Independence dawns, penury-ridden farmers are still committing suicide by the thousands— a consequence of decades of short-sightedness, while economists and scientists are still equating food sufficiency to farmer sustainability. The occasion merits introspection on the core issues of farmers’ distress. We must begin at the...

-The Times of India blog A reply by Water Resources minister Uma Bharti  to a Lok Sabha question on groundwater depletion foregrounds tough trade-offs facing India’s policymakers. According to Bharti, an assessment of groundwater resources and usage showed that 16% of 6,584 assessment units in India are “overexploited.” A table which accompanies her reply provides state-wise data. Here, punjab stands out for the magnitude of overexploitation. If 16% of assessed units in India...

-The Financial Express Pune: Farmer producer companies in Maharashtra, punjab and Haryana are considering the possibility of commencing trading in grapes, potato seeds and basmati rice soon. A 30-member team from farmer producer companies (FPCs) associated with the northern operations of the Vegetable Growers Association of India (VGAI) and the Haryana horticulture department was in Maharashtra to study the infrastructure of FPCs in the state and the establishment of logistics for...

-Deccan Herald New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra on Monday said the government is likely to scrap public distribution scheme (PDS) system and transfer money directly to the accounts of poor beneficiaries after getting encouraging results from Haryana and Puducherry. Modi stated this during his Monday's informal discussion with BJP MPs from Delhi, J-K, Haryana, punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. According to a press statement issued on the outcome of interaction with...

-The Hindu State Agriculture Department asks farmers to keep a vigil on the crop and not panic; runs awareness and training campaigns to combat the threat Chandigarh: With whitefly sighted in the cotton belt districts of punjab due to the prevailing hot and humid weather conditions, the Agriculture Department has asked farmers to keep a vigil, besides running awareness and training campaigns to combat the threat. “The next 15-20 days are critical. We...