-PTI   The group has also urged the govt to constitute a national-level Commission, which looks into measures to prevent farmer suicides Nagpur: Farmers in the Maharashtra's Vidarbha region have demanded a Rs 30,000 crore development package from the upcoming Union Budget. In view of the neglected farmers, it was high time that the central government looks at agrarian crisis seriously in Vidarbha and announce a hefty development package, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS)...

-Down to Earth   Study by National Institute of Disaster Management shows authorities neglected to break the cycle of droughts when rains were plentiful Drought in Bundelkhand region of central India has been a matter of concern for decades. A new study by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) now gives a composite map of the drought which explains the reason for the region witnessing drought year on year. The study shows that droughts...

-The Financial Express   With newer varieties and improvement in yield, packaging and marketing, basmati-long hailed as the ‘king of rice'-is spreading its sweet aroma worldwide WALK INTO any supermarket today and the most eye-catching items will be in the section selling packaged rice. Rice, that humble, century-old staple of the Indian diet, has emerged from its traditional image-grains in an open gunny bag-to a slick new avatar. Today, rice, and basmati in...

-Down to Earth   Reserve Bank of India refuses to bail out three district cooperative banks Kharif sowing season is close at hand, but around 100,000 farmers of Nagpur, Wardha and Buldhana districts in Maharashtra are unlikely to get agricultural loan or hailstorm relief from the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected banking applications of these banks. Worse, fixed deposits worth Rs 1,716 crore belonging...

-The Hindu Business Line   Pokkali cultivation gets help from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and fisheries research body KOCHI: Kerala's Pokkali farming, a unique saline tolerant rice variety that is facing extinction, could be on a revival path if efforts of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Ernakulam) under the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute bear fruit. This old and traditional method of cultivation has been reduced to less than 1,000 hectares in the coastal areas of Ernakulam...