-Business Standard Activists, others question yield and bio-safety data; GM mustard can improve yields by 25-30% After many ifs and buts, the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard seems to have reached a decisive phase after the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) recommended on Thursday that it be allowed.   The ministry of environment and forests will now decide on whether this herbicide-tolerant variety can become the first GM food crop to be...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's central biotech regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), on Thursday cleared the genetically modified (GM) Mustard for commercial cultivation and recommended its approval to the environment ministry. The fate of this transgenic variety of oil-seed will now be in the hands of the MoS environment Anil Madhav Dave who may either accept it, reject it or sit over the file till the Supreme Court takes...

-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...

-Livemint.com According to NCDEX, over 25,000 small and marginal farmers from 13 FPOs have successfully hedged their crops on its trading platform in the past 10 months New Delhi: In a bumper crop year when farmers across the country have been battered by lower crop prices, farmers’ groups are using futures contracts to hedge against price dips during the harvest season. For instance, Samriddhi Mahila Crop Production Co. Ltd, a farmer-producer organization (FPO)...

-The Indian Express According to the agriculture ministry’s second advance estimates of crop production for this year, total foodgrain output will surpass the previous all-time-high of 2013-14. India’s production of foodgrains and oilseeds is expected to hit record levels in 2016-17 on the back of a normal southwest monsoon and a decent winter, which would more than offset the impact, if any, of demonetisation. According to the agriculture ministry’s second advance estimates of...