In a major boost to Gujarat's big farmers, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Government of India has approved commercial distribution of a new variety of Bt Cotton seed, developed jointly by US multinational Monsanto, Gujarat Seed Supply Corporation (GSSC) and Navsari Agricultural University. The new seed is expected to raise cotton productivity by up to 30 per cent as against the current Bt Cotton yield of 11...

-PTI   Reflecting the utmost priority to address farm sector woes, a first-of-its-kind workshop was held on Wednesday at the initiative of President Pratibha Patil where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pitched for raising agriculture output to provide food security to citizens.  At the workshop attended by eight Union ministers, 20 governors, five chief ministers and 37 vice chancellors of agricultural universities, Patil underlined the need for "out-of-the-box" solutions to enhance productivity in rainfed...

India has been striving to achieve 4% growth rate in farm output since the beginning of Ninth Five-Year Plan. However, actual growth rate has remained invariably lower than the targeted growth rate. Further, agriculture witnessed a sharp slowdown during mid-1990s to the middle of the first decade of 21st century.  Annual growth rate in farm GDP declined to 2.4% a year during 1995-96 to 2004-05 from more than 3% in the...

-The Telegraph   The proposed food security law may not succeed unless the government revamps the public distribution system (PDS) and creates back-up infrastructure, Sharad Pawar said today about the bill seen as a Sonia Gandhi pet project. “I will be failing in my duty if I do not emphasise the food security act will never succeed in achieving its goals in letter and spirit if we try to push the same through...

-The Deccan Herald   Agri Minister doubts existing mechanism enough for roll out Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday reiterated that augmenting grain production and overhaul of the Public Distribution System were critical to implementation of the Congress-led UPA Government’s ambitious National Food Security Bill. “I will be failing in my duty if I do not emphasise the fact that the Food Security Act will never succeed in achieving its goal in letter and...