-The Business Standard/ Agencies   1,500 villages under water; Assam, Bihar too affected  Lucknow/ New Delhi: Floods triggered by heavy rains in the Himalayas have inundated nearly 1,500 villages in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 28 people and leaving thousands homeless, officials said on Sunday. Thousands were marooned in villages across nine districts of Uttar Pradesh, where the release of water from overflowing dams in neighbouring Nepal has added to the impact of the...

-The Business Standard Rainfall shortage in Rajasthan to hit summer and winter crops Alwar (Rajasthan): Khajura Ram has an agonising fortnight ahead. If it does not rain in the next 15 days, he not only will have a poor summer bajra crop; his winter wheat or mustard will suffer as well because it will have to be planted late. "By the middle of August, the bajra crop should have been ready for harvesting...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's weather agency has revised its 2014 monsoon forecast downwards, predicting 13 per cent rainfall deficit instead of 7 per cent forecast earlier this year, cautioning that yields of several crops may decline but dismissing fears of a widespread drought. The India Meteorological Department today said the rainfall during the remaining six weeks of the monsoon season will be much better than over the past two months. But...

-The Business Standard A delayed monsoon and abundant cotton in the international market could spell trouble in the state's suicide zone Yavatmal (Maharashtra): As the skies stayed clear till the second week of June, Ramesh Gulabhrao Digde's mood darkened. His two acres were ploughed at great expense, the seeds were purchased, and a sack of fertilisers lay in a corner of his thatch-roofed hut in Parsodi village in western Maharashtra's Yavatmal...

-The Business Standard Four sub missions have been merged into one scheme - agri extension, seed and planting material, agri mechanisation and plant protection and plant quarantine   Mumbai: The ministry of agriculture has introduced an umbrella scheme to augment agricultural extension and technology activities with the objective of improving the supply of the agricultural commodities from the grass root level. According to official sources, the impetus on agricultural extension has to go hand...