-TheWeek.in Efforts on to substitute wheat and paddy crops with other market-driven crops Madhya Pradesh government launched a crop diversification promotion scheme with focus on Natural Farming and on substituting wheat and paddy crops with other crops that are suitable for local climate and are market driven. The crop diversification scheme has been launched for three years starting the current financial year (2022-23), to encourage demand-based crop diversification, keeping in mind the economic...

-Down to Earth There is a widespread availability of inferior quality as well as spurious biofertiliser and organic fertiliser products across the country The availability, quality and uptake of biofertilisers and organic fertilisers in India is poor, flagged a new report. These non-chemical options are considered critical to the transition from chemical-based to sustainable farming practices like organic and Natural Farming. The availability of cost-effective quality biofertilisers and organic fertilisers is, therefore, of...

-Newsclick.in The central government has raked in over Rs18 lakh crore from excise duties compared to Rs14 lakh crore from taxes by all state governments over the past eight years. Yet again, the government has tried to obfuscate the exorbitant petrol/diesel prices by blaming state governments. This time, it was the Prime Minister himself who blamed some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT) after the central...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com WHEN the Sri Lankan economy collapsed with a sigh recently, prominently sticking out of the debris was a failed attempt to take the island nation into full-scale organic agricultural production. The Rajapaksa government had virtually overnight ordered a switch to organic agriculture to save foreign exchange on the import of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. But going organic, instead of being the solution, became a bigger problem with food crops failing and the...

-Livemint.com Natural Farming is the need of the hour and it is important to identify scientific ways so farmers can be assured direct benefits from Natural Farming and higher incomes, the statement said qoting NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant NEW DELHI: Natural Farming, different from commercial farming, can be given a chance now because there is no serious threat to food security given that India is a food surplus nation...