-DNA   Workshop showcases benefit of SRI technique that requires less water and input, but provides better yield Ahmedabad: Paddy cultivators in Navsari and Dangs reap fortune in their fields with the new system of rice intensification (SRI), a methodology of crop Cultivation has yielded rich dividends. Experts who spoke about the unique technique compared it with other techniques that require a initial high input cost, and said this method of Cultivation on...

-IANS   How does a warming environment affect rainfall, cropping patterns, livelihoods? What could be the alternatives that people whose livelihoods are hit by the effects of climate change do to cope? An initiative by Britain and Canada seeks to study and tackle the effects of climate change in South Asia, in tandem with TERI and Jadavpur University in India and similar institutes in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Canada's International Development Research Centre...

-ANI New Delhi/ Cuttack: Farmers in India's eastern region, prone for flash floods, are now shifting to flood-tolerant variety of rice, developed by Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, IRRI. The variety - Swarna-SUB1, is bread from a popular Indian variety of rice Swarna by upgrading it with SUB1, the gene for flood tolerance. Swarna was developed by Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University. The new variety, according to a report in the Indian Science Journal...

-The Hindu   Challenge is to save existing acreage by increasing productivity, reducing cost Mangalore: Area of paddy cultivated in kharif season in Dakshina Kannada decreased by more than 17 per cent and in rabi by more than 15 per cent in the past decade and a half, according to the Department of Agriculture. Officials attributed this to farmers switching over to horticulture crops and converting the area under the food crop for various...

-Down to Earth Most suicides among orchard farmers, say observers As many as 101 farmers have committed suicide in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra since the devastating hailstorms in March this year. This sudden spurt of suicides has raised concerns as to whether this arid region is heading for an agrarian crisis similar to that of Vidarbha. A whopping 71 suicides have been reported in the month of March 2014, close on the...