-IANS Guwahati: Rice is generally white in colour, or is it? Black is the colour for over 200 farmers in Assam’s Goalpara district - and they are laughing all the way to the bank. Started by a single farmer in the district about four years ago, the cultivation of black rice has caught the fancy of more and more farmers who are turning to it instead of the traditional white rice. Young farmer...

-Business Standard Private weather forecast agency revises estimate to 109% of LPA As the country awaits the arrival of the southwest monsoon after two years of drought, private weather forecasting agency Skymet on Tuesday revised upward its 2016 southwest monsoon forecast to 109 per cent of the long period average (LPA) from 105 predicted in April. The forecast, if accurate, would mean that India might have its highest southwest monsoon since 1994 and...

-The Times of India Ahmedabad: As the state reels under water scarcity this summer staring at empty dams on minor rivers, several areas in Kutch are still satiating their drinking water needs from carefully managed groundwater. A total of 300 villages of four talukas on coastal area - Abdasa, Mandvi, Mundra and Anjar - are involved in an aquifer management project for the past four years.   This summer has showed a marked difference...

-DNA To add value to the ailing Farming sector in Maharashtra, which is reeling under successive droughts, agrarian distress and a negative growth rate, the state government is working on an agro-industrial policy. "We are working on an agro-industrial policy. It will look at granting incentives to agro-industries like food processing units, which will help create value chains for farmers and set up facilities like cold storages. The policy will also grant...

-Livemint.com A look at the past three budgets shows that the government took note of the crisis only in 2016 On 24 April 2014, about a month before Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a new government at the centre, the India Meteorological Department made an ominous forecast. The four-month-long southwest monsoon which irrigates more than half of India’s farmlands was likely to be deficient. Over the next few months the...