Turmeric has reaped gold in Andhra Pradesh's Nizamabad district. Turmeric farmers B Pedolla Chinnaya and Badam Maruthi are celebrating their new prosperity at the local auto dealer. While Mr Chinnaya has plumped for a Hyundai Santro, Mr Maruthi has used his cash bonanza on namesake Maruti Swift. Chinnaya and Maruthi belong to Ergatla village where each has about four acres of land. While Chinnaya has made Rs 9 lakh from 90 quintals...

THE government on Thursday raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1000 per quintal in what may push up its food subsidy bill, pegged at Rs 5 5,578.18 crore in the current fiscal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also increased the minimum support price of pulses by up to Rs 700 to touch Rs 3,170 a...

Punjab farmers have been struck a double blow on the eve of the paddy transplantation season, which starts tomorrow. Reliant on migrant labour to transplant paddy on 26 lakh hectares, they are witnessing a few arrivals on trains coming in from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Farmers also do not have the option of falling back on mechanised transplantation with the experiment launched with full fanfare by the state government last...

WITH the introduction of short-term, high-yielding varieties of cereal and oil-seed crops, the cropping intensity has now reached almost 300 per cent in Punjab. Moreover, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides involve greater use of scarce groundwater resources. The water table has gone down alarmingly resulting in huge investment on installation of costly submersible pumps to draw water for irrigation. This does not auger well for sustainable...

Police lathicharged farmers here on Tuesday when they went on a rampage for not getting seeds from a government outlet. Farmers assembled in the seed market here on Tuesday morning to purchase the seeds. The went on a rampage when they were told that the Rajasthan Marketing Cooperative Society (KVSS) has run out of the stock of pearl millet seeds. They assembled at the Paota circle in the morning and...