-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As part of the Centre's grand plan to convert the hilly areas of the country as exclusive zones of high-value organic farm products, the government on Saturday launched a scheme to encourage farmers in J&K to cultivate scientifically tested and commercially beneficial aromatic and medicinal plants in the state. Under the scheme -- known as 'Jammu Kashmir Arogya Gram Yojna' - the government's key R&D body...

-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...

-The Hindu ADILABAD (Telengana): With 40 suicides in 100 days, there is an urgent need for farmers to focus on other crops. The scale of finance for cotton is Rs. 24,000 per acre for un-irrigated crop while for red gram, black gram and green gram it is Rs. 11,000, Rs. 9,500 and Rs. 9,750 per acre. Adilabad seems to be holding onto to its position among the top ranking districts in the...

-Women's Feature Service Tribal families in Bankura, West Bengal, living on a stable diet of potato and rice and occasionally some 'daal' (lentils), are now consuming a variety of vegetables, cereals, fruits and animal protein with relish on a daily basis, marking a sea change in the nutrition parametres in one of the most backward districts of India. The credit for this dramatic transformation goes to the dry land sustainable integrated farming...

-i9media When tourism alone couldn't achieve the desired growth, modernisation of agriculture was adopted and thus the district of Umaria in Madhya Pradesh was able to achieve prosperity. Madhya Pradesh has been continuously drawing attention of other states because of its agricultural growth in recent years. Some of its districts, which used to have very low productivity, are now contributing significantly in the agricultural development. Umaria is one such district where agriculture...