-Livemint.com The experts are said to be likely to be in India starting 9 December, inspecting units and laboratories mostly in Gujarat and Maharashtra New Delhi: After indicating to revoke the import ban on mangoes and four other farm produce from India, a team of European experts will visit the country next week to inspect pesticide levels in sesame seeds used in confectionery. The experts are likely to visit India starting 9...

-The Tribune The outlook for all things smart is opening up, including Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Varanasi, set to develop as a Smart City, will be a lighthouse for sectors seeking sustainable ways to handle demographic pressures, finite environmental resources and climate change. The Finance Minister's budget speech has promised a hundred smart cities. With urban India well covered, it is the turn now of smart agriculture, equipped both to enhance food...

-The Hindu Thanks to application of bio-fertilizers, green manure Cumbum (Tamil Nadu): A paddy farmer in Cumbum Pudhupatti village has got a bumper yield this year, setting a new record in yield per hectare, thanks to the application of bio-fertilizers, green manure, proper split application of chemical fertilizers and adoption of modern agriculture practices. He has harvested 15.8 tonnes per hectare against the district average of 10 tonnes this season. It was the...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The runaway growth in states of subsidised solar pumps, which provide quality energy at near-zero marginal cost, can pose a bigger threat of groundwater over-exploitation than free power has done so far. The best way to meet this threat is by paying farmers to "grow" solar power as a remunerative cash crop. Doing so can reduce pressure on aquifers, cut the subsidy burden on electricity companies, reduce...

-IPS News SUNDARBANS: November is the cruelest month for landless families in the Indian Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world lying primarily in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. There is little agricultural wage-work to be found, and the village moneylender's loan remains unpaid, its interest mounting. The paddy harvest is a month away, pushing rice prices to an annual high. For those like Namita Bera,...