-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: To preserve indigenous seed varieties and also promote organic farming, the state bio-diversity board will soon open over 110 seed banks across the two states. With the requisite budgets sanctioned for this pilot project, the board is all set to start the programme in the coming weeks. The concept is inspired by the activities of a Karnataka-based NGO which was able to do the same in a...

-The Hindu Kolkata: The West Bengal government has come up with a comprehensive crop calendar to guide farmers, senior officials said on Saturday. "From sowing to harvesting, details about the quality of seeds, manure and fertilisers - the calendar will come in handy for farmers," an official of the State Agriculture department said, adding that it will be distributed free of cost to 3,000 farmers in each block. The Trinamool Congress website...

-IANS   PATNA: The central government is planning to turn India's eastern states into an organic farming-hub, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said here on Monday. "Our priority is to develop Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and eastern Uttar Pradesh into an organic farming hub for development of the region and to provide opportunity to millions of farmers to earn more," Singh told media persons. Singh, who hails from Bihar, said organic farming...

-The Hindu   There is a need for promotion of local varieties on a commercial scale, says expert Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Telangana government's commitment towards making the State a seed hub in the country has come at a juncture when commercial crops such as cotton have failed the farmers' expectations, but is witnessing a sharp increase in demand for organic and indigenous variety of food grains in the country. "The time seems to be...

-DNA   Gadag: Rajendra Shirol, a farmer from the drought prone Gadag district, has found a way to find some respite from the increasing temperature. He has cultivated an Ayurvedic herbal crop `Ashwagandha', botanically known as ‘Withania somnifera.' He has been encouraging about 100 farmers in the Gadag and Koppal districts to sow the seeds of Ashwagandha, that can grow in plenty, despite the scarcity of water, infertility of land, hot temperature and...