-The Times of India GREATER NOIDA: The farmer community of Greater Noida welcomed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's relief announcements in terms of debt waivers and buy back proposals of stacked up wheat produce. The twin announcements have given hope to the community which has been suffering under financial distress over last three years because of cash crunch and inclement crop damage. Adityanath's announcement of wheat purchase made yesterday at Gorakhpur came in...

-IANS Shimla: Himachal Pradesh, whose economy largely banks on agriculture and horticulture, aims to develop bio villages by promoting organic farming. The state is also eyeing investment in cold chains. An additional 2,000 hectares will be brought under organic farming and there are plans to develop 200 bio-villages in the next fiscal, a government spokesperson told IANS. He said farmers in the bio-villages would use only bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides and discourage...

-The Hindu Indiscriminate digging of farm ponds has accelerated groundwater extraction The Maharashtra government’s flagship Jalyukt Shivar Yojana has been touted as a drought-proofing scheme, but a field study conducted by South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) gives a different picture. The organisation carried out the study at Hiwargaon-Pawasa, a backwater village with a population of 1,500, in Ahmadnagar district’s Sangamner Taluk. The research presents a microcosmic example of how...

-Livemint.com Repeated price shocks take the sheen off horticulture crops grown by small and marginal farmers New Delhi: In the past few years, horticulture crops emerged as a favourite for small growers across the country. 2016-17 marks the fifth straight year when production of fruits and vegetables is estimated to surpass that of foodgrains. This signals a fundamental shift in India’s farm economy towards a growing share of horticulture crops, which now...

-The Tribune New Delhi: India’s foodgrain output is likely to hit a record 271.98 million tonnes in the 2016-17 crop year ending June, buoyed by good monsoon after two years of drought. Most crops, including rice, wheat, coarse grains, pulses and oilseeds, are expected to outperform the past year’s production figures, as per the second advance estimates of production of major crops released today. While rice will contribute a record 108.86 MT to...